The Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) and the Tourism Ministry has presented the first ‘Year of Return’ cloth to President Akufo-Addo at the opening ceremony of the 2019 Diaspora Homecoming Summit.
The cloth is part of souvenirs for the Year of Return-Ghana 2019 celebrations which commemorates 400 years since the first enslaved Africans arrived in Jamestown Virginia in the USA.
The Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Barbara Oteng Gyasi, presented a piece of the ‘Year of Return’ cloth to the President, as she officially launched the cloth for the year-long celebration.
The cloth which comes in two colours, black and white were showcased to participants at the summit by the Miss Tourism Beauty Queens and other models who wore the cloth in different styles including kaba and slit, shirts, skirts and etc.
The Minister urged all African brothers and sister to take a piece of the cloth with them.
Present at the summit were, the Minister for Information, Hon. Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, CEO of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre Mr. Yofi Grant, CEO of the Ghana Tourism Authority, Mr Akwasi Agyeman and Director of Diaspora Affairs at the Office of the President, Mr Akwasi Awua Ababio, who is the Chairman of the Year of Return Steering Committee.
Among these dignitaries were several Ghanaians from the diaspora who partook in the summit and made contributions on discussions and dialogues on how to move Ghana forward on the business front.
The Year of Return forms part of the President’s aim of creating the enabling environments for all Africans in the diaspora to return home not only to experience the Ghanaian culture, warmth and rhythm, but also to invest and to do business.