Speaking at the launch of the Show, Madam Esther Cobbah, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Stratcom Africa, said the company had organised the event since 2013 as a national behavioural change campaign.

She said the company sought to work with Ghanaians to ensure that there was an attitudinal change towards floriculture and horticulture by promoting a greener, cleaner, healthier, wealthier and more beautiful Ghana.

The theme for this year’s Ghana Garden and Flower Show, scheduled for September 20 to 26, is: “Enriching Ghana: One Garden at a Time.”  Madam Cobbah said as part of the event, there would be a conference to discuss and explore how floriculture and horticulture could help the country.

Other activities outlined for the Show are party in the park, music in the park, and fashion in the park – a garden themed fashion, to help people see the importance of green spaces to relaxation.

Madam Cobbah said the major activity of the Show would be the exhibition of flowers and plants that were available in the country and also showcase garden ornaments among other things in the country’s floriculture and horticulture space.

There would also be taste of the park, where Ghanaian meals, prepared with ingredients from Ghana and decorating with flowers, would be served. Madam Cobbah said: “We want Ghanaians to understand that Flowers and Gardens are part of our lives” adding that God created man and placed him in the Garden and instructed him to cultivate and not to destroy it.

On his part, Dr Edward Botchway, the Chief Finance Officer and Executive Director at Ecobank Ghana, said Ecobank, as a partner of this year’s event, was committed to a green environment.

He said Ecobank was a strong advocate for a green Ghana and a greener Africa in general, adding that the partnership with Stratcom Africa was appropriate because the two had similar goals of greening the environment.

He said the Bank had ensured that its Head Office’s edifice was compliant with the Carbon Footprint and its related agreements, and committed to the reduction of carbons.  Mr Botchway said last year the Bank saved 2.3 million sheets of paper by going digital through the introduction of the Ecobank Mobile App.

He said the introduction of the App also helped to reduce the distance that a client would have travelled in a day by transacting banking activities from home, thereby reducing clients’ carbon footprints.

Prior to the launch, the Stratcom team and a section of the media went on a walk in a garden at Nima, where women had cultivated vegetables and plants to provide some green scenery in their homes.

Madam Mariam Salifu, the Chairperson of the Mothers Club in Development at Nima, said they were inspired to take to planting vegetables and plants in their homes when the German Development Cooperation agreed to help them in that endeavour.

She said 250 women were trained and sieved down to 20 to receive support to cultivate plants like passion fruit and cocoyam.