We've done very well and we deserve something

Ashanti public servant

Mr Kufuor, sworn in last month, is the country's first Ashanti president since independence in 1957.

His election, and comments on the Ashanti people, has caused fierce debates and arguments. Opinions are divided on the issue.

The president's failure to make promises to his home region has generated some amount of interest. Some Ashantis who feel they were a key factor in the victory of Mr Kufuor and his New Patriotic Party, think he should have made some concrete pledges and promises to the region.

The Ashanti region voted almost 80% for Mr Kufuor and NPP.

"We've done very well and we deserve something and should be immediately," said a public servant in Kumasi, the Ashanti capital.

No economic miracles

The president received a thunderous reception when he visited the city. Thousands of people lined the streets, calling "akwaaba", meaning "welcome home".

In his maiden address to parliament, Mr Kufuor had told the nation that his predecessor, Jerry Rawlings, had bequeathed a messy economy and that the high expectation of Ghanaians could not be met in the shortest possible time.

Jerry Rawlings was president for 19 years

Even so, some of the president's tribesmen were expecting firm promises. But on the economic front at least, he had none.

"The only promise I have for you in the interim is that as an Ashanti I won't do anything to soil our image," he told a reception organised in his honour by the King of Ashanti, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.

Ashanti is Ghana's gold-mining and agricultural heartland. It provides much of the country's cocoa and timber. But obsolete wood processing machinery and the continued fall of primary commodity prices including gold and cocoa, have taken its toll.

"There is the urgent need to save these important sectors of the economy," one economist told the BBC.

The Ashanti people are also hoping the president will kick-start a major face-lifting project in Kumasi's leading business district, which is being funded by the World Bank. The project was originally scheduled for completion about a year ago, but most of the works have yet to be tackled.

There is a strong feeling in the city that the Rawlings administration deliberately delayed the project because of the region's consistent opposition to his government.