The Chairman of Festival and Culture for the Banda National Heritage Council, Ahmed Banda (Bandex), has urged parents of Banda Jorgorya descent to invest in their children’s education to help transform their lives in the future.

He stated that the only way to bridge the poverty gap in the Banda area is to invest in children's education in all the Banda communities.

Mr Banda made the call at Wenchi in the Bono Region during the celebration of Banda Jorgorya National Heritage 2024 annual Kurubi festival.

The people of Banda celebrate the  Banda National Heritage annual Kurubi Festival once annually to showcase the rich culture of the Banda people, promote tourism, take stock of the previous year, mobilise the Banda people for national development, reunite families and pray for peace.

They usually celebrate it two weeks after the Ramadan fasting, and Banda indigenes from across the length and breadth of Ghana travel to Wenchi to celebrate the festival.

During the celebration, wooden platforms are made for the women to mount to traditionally prove that they are faithful to single men to select for marriage.

Bandex encouraged parents in the community to channel all their energies into educating their children, adding, "education of children is vital for the development of our communities”.

"If Bandaman wants to achieve development and compete with her counterpart in other parts of the country, then children's education must be their foremost priority,” Mr Banda advised.

Mr Banda further said, "Let me use this opportunity to urge all parents in our communities to put all their resources into securing good education for their children, especially the girl child”.

For his part, the Patron of the Banda National Heritage Council, Alhaji Abdallah Ahmed Abdallah, explained that the rationale behind the Kurubi festival is to protect teenage girls against pre-marital sex.

He advised the youth, particularly adolescent girls, to abstain from pre-marital sex to avoid contracting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and unwanted pregnancies that could jeopardise their future.

He also appealed to parents to take good care of their adolescent girls, providing them with their basic needs to prevent them from engaging in immoral acts such as pre-marital sex.