Chieftaincy Disputes Are Killing Klottey Korley Investments – Zanetor

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Korley Klottey in the Greater Accra Region says bickering among chiefs in the constituency is a major hindrance to development in the area.

Dr. Zanetor Agyeman-Rawlings asserts that investors and developers shy away from engaging the constituency because of the ceaseless chieftaincy disputes in the area.

“The basic thing is that there are too many fights that are happening. Too many issues within the chieftaincy institution in Osu are making it difficult for people to bring support because when you come to Osu with the intention of supporting, then they will tell you that the chief is this, or it is this other one,” she lamented.

The MP explained that when well-wishers and philanthropists realise that there is no clarity as to who the traditional leaders are, they do not want to be plunged into the chieftaincy issues. Hence, they pull back, and this affects the community.

“In the case when you have a lot of people who want to support various communities, the difficulty here is that you have an injunction placed on one group, court order placed on the other, and the difficulty of some people not allowed to go to certain areas during Homowo creates a lack of harmony,” she observed.

Dr Agyemang-Rawlings further stated that chieftaincy disputes in the area marred this year’s Homowo Festival.

She appealed to the traditional leaders and the people of Osu to resolve their differences and unite for the development of the area.

“Parts of the beauty of Homowo and other festivals is to bring people together and so there is the need to find resolutions to some of these issues within the Korley Klottey Constituency especially in Osu, in order to assure people that Osu is ready to receive the support and encouragement of external sources,” she expressed.

In a related development, His Royal Majesty King Tackie Tsuru II, Ga Mantse, has urged business owners and operators to take advantage of the opportunities the Homowo festival presents to build business partnerships and synergies.

He asked entrepreneurs to use the opportunity to share knowledge and build capacity to penetrate the intra-continental market through the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

King Tackie Tsuru II said this on the first day of the two-day business summit dubbed: “Mantse Amugi Business Africa 2022,” organised by the Office of the Ga Mantse Palace in collaboration with the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) to mark this year’s celebration of Homowo.

The summit afforded small and medium enterprises the opportunity to exhibit their products at the forecourt of the AMA.

The event brought together business owners and operators, traders, producers and manufacturers.

Others were traditional leaders, government officials, and officials from AfCFTA, including Mr Wamkele Mene, Secretary General of AfCFTA.

“My friend and I here started a business with only GHC 1, and about three years, we were making about GHC 300, 000 every month,” he said. “We had about 400 workers all over Ghana and that’s why I am saying it is important for some of us to take AfCFTA seriously”.

He also asked that the celebration be used as a tool for reconciliation and support for the needy.

Madam Elizabeth Kwatsoe Tawiah Sackey, Mayor of Accra, in her welcome address, said the business forum could present new ideas and urged participants to embrace them and tap into one another’s expertise.

She said it was the time to solidify businesses and petty trading to impact the lives of families, communities and Ghana as a whole, taking into consideration the twists and turns of the business environment.

Mr Mene said the AfCFTA Secretariat was committed to positioning Ghana and Accra as the trade and commercial centres of the African continent.

He said Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and young investors in Accra should take advantage of the agreement and penetrate beyond the ECOWAS market.

“…And so your deliberations today must be focused on strategies to benefit from the AfCFTA where we trade more amongst ourselves with a population of about 1.3 billion people and a combined GDP of $3.4 trillion,” Mr Mene said.