The management and staff of the National Investment Bank (NIB) have marked the 2021 Green Ghana Day with a tree planting exercise at selected locations on the Accra-Tema-Kasoa stretch.

The exercise, which was led by the Managing Director of NIB, Mr Samuel Sarpong, was meant to complement the government’s efforts at greening the country through the planting of five million trees on the maiden Green Ghana day.

A statement from the bank said Mr Sarpong led a team of enthusiastic staff from the Abeka Branch of the bank to the Anunmle Basic School in Accra to plant a variety of trees.

State bank

Mr Sarpong told the pupils of the school that trees benefitted the society in immense ways, hence the need for all to support the national tree planting exercise.

He admonished them to care for the plants and pledged the bank’s support for the school.

“As a national bank, we are duty-bound to ensure every positive initiative embarked on by the state is fully supported,” he said.

Economic benefits

The Deputy Managing Director of the bank, Mr Tweneboa Kodua Fokuo, who led another team to plant trees at the Dansoman Baptist Church, expressed delight in the exercise.

He said trees were critical to man’s survival and expressed optimism that the project would help grow more trees in the country to help protect the environment and provide other economic benefits to humans and society.

He implored the authorities of the church, who partnered the bank in the exercise, to ensure that the trees were nurtured and closely monitored to grow in order to restore what had been lost.

He said the tree planting exercise would undoubtedly improve the quality of life of Ghanaians as well as contribute to the global reforestation efforts.

Unconventional practices

An initiative of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, the national tree planting exercise aimed at restoring destroyed vegetation and greening the country as part of a global effort to fight climate change.

The NIB said in the statement that unconventional environmental practices such as illegal mining, unbridled felling of trees and bad farming practices had, over the years, led to the destruction of vast tracts of arable land.

It added that such practices had immensely depleted the forest cover in most areas and thus expressed the hope that the ‘Green Ghana Campaign’ meant to commemorate International Day of Forest would help to restore the lost vegetation.

The bank was confident that the exercise would help instil the culture of tree planting in Ghanaians in a bid to protect, preserve and restore the country’s lost forest cover.