Ghana is aiming to plant over 5 million trees on Friday in an effort to preserve and protect the country’s forest cover and the environment at large.

President Nana Akufo was expected to lead the occasion on Friday to mark Green Ghana Day.

Thousands of bags containing millions of different types of seedlings were distributed in Ghana’s 16 regions.

At a media briefing in Accra to update the public on preparations made for the exercise, Mr Samuel Abu Jinapor, the Sector Minister, said the Forestry Commission had produced six million seedlings and distributed them to the 16 regions.

He said, for instance, the Greater Accra Region had received 450,000 seedlings, Central Region-400, 000, Western Region-250,000, Western North-420,000, and Ashanti Region-one million seedlings.

The rest are: Ahafo-170,000,Bono-250,000,Bono East-300,000, Eastern-750,000, Volta-200,000, Oti-150,000,Northern-250,000,North East-120,000, Savannah-250,000,Upper East-170,000, and Upper West-150,000.

The Minister said the Ministry, through the Forestry Commission, was determined to restore the depleted forest cover, ravaged by negative human activities such as illegal mining and lumbering.

Currently, the country’s forest cover stood at 1.6 million hectares from 8.2 million hectares witnessed in the 1900s.