Thursday 20th February, 2020
By Simon Asare, GNA
Accra, Feb. 20, GNA – President Nana Addo
Dankwa Akufo-Addo has acknowledged the contribution of Hollywood star, Boris
Kodjoe and international marketing icon, Bozoma Saint John towards the
successful organisation of the “Year of Return” programme.
The year 2019 marked the 400th year of the
arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Jamestown Virginia in what was known
as the Transatlantic Slave Trade with many Africans in the Diaspora coming back
home to Ghana to commemorate the event.
Delivering the State of the Nation Address
(SONA) to Parliament on Thursday, President Akufo-Addo said, “I should
thank two people, in particular, who have embraced their Ghanaian heritage and
have played a key role in our effort to build lasting bridges between Ghana and
African-Americans: Hollywood star, Boris Kodjoe and international marketing
icon, Bozoma Saint John.
“We are grateful to both of them for
leveraging their star-power to attract thousands to the land of their fathers,
and to drive a fresh narrative that says Ghana is a land of opportunity; visit,
invest, make it your home. We appreciate deeply their contribution and that of
many others to the success of the entire project.”
President Akufo-Addo added that his
government was committed to building on the success of the Year of Return as
measures are being put in place for the new its new programme dubbed ‘Beyond
the Return’.
President Akufo-Addo was hopeful that Ghana
would become an attractive and irresistible destination, a place of pilgrimage,
a nation that everyone with a hint of African blood must visit at least once in
their lifetime.
The President commended all Ghanaians who
embraced the ‘Year of Return’ and helped project a positive and endearing image
of the country.
GNA