The Central Regional Development Commission (CEDECOM) has said it is on course to lift the region out of poverty with many investment opportunities.

The Central Region is counted among the country’s poorest, a position many in the region feel could change given the investment opportunities that abound there.

Speaking at the maiden Central Regional Investment conference at Elmina in the Central Region, Board Chairman of the Commission, Dr Nana Kojo Essiam Mensah Abrampa, told the conference of investors that CEDECOM would create the needed opportunities for investment to propel the region to its appropriate trajectory of development.

The three-day conference hosted by the commission brought together both local and international investors to explore the opportunities in the region and help accelerate the regions’ development.

“We are charting a new path to develop the region. We want to do things differently to lift the region out of poverty and that’s why we are in this conference,” he explained.

The maiden investment conference sought to address the gaps in its development and also provide answers to why the region is poor despite the investment opportunities, quality human resources and other valuable natural resources the region is blessed with.

“The Central region has many of the nation’s quality human resources and we are counting on them to come home to help support the region. Many have agreed; we started with a series of meetings of our traditional authorities at the Regional House of Chiefs, our Parliamentarians and many great minds that come from the region,” Dr Mensah Abrampa averred.

The CEDECOM board chair, Dr Nana Kojo Essiam Mensah Abrampa was optimistic the just ended investment conference will open many doors for the region, President of the Central Regional House of Chiefs, Oberempong Nyanfo Krampa IX, indicated the chiefs and other traditional leaders in the region are making lands available for investors and called on people that hail from the region to support CEDECOM as it journeys to transform the region.

“We need to get jobs for our youths. We need to turn the fortunes of the region around because we have all that it takes to do that. We, as traditional leaders, pledge our unflinching support towards this course,” he said.

For the Board Chairman of MTN Ghana Limited, Dr Ishmael Yamson who is also from the central region, he believes a lot more needs to be done to attract the needed investment. He was hopeful the current crop of the leadership of CEDECOM led by Dr Nana Kojo Essiam Abrampa will make significant gains for the fortunes of the region to be turned around.

The conference afforded participants the rare opportunity to network with both local and global investors in the spirit of attracting investments for economic and industrial development and ultimately create jobs for the people in the region.

The theme for the conference was Projecting Central Region as a preferred investment destination.