VRA launches stamps to honour Nkrumah

Accra, March 2, GNA - The Volta River Authority (VRA) on Tuesday launched commemorative stamps to mark the centenary celebrations of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first President.

The stamps, which were printed and issued by Ghana Post on behalf of VRA, captured the Akosombo Dam, Akosombo Generating Station Retrofit, Kpong Dam and the Tema and Takoradi Thermal Plants. It would be sold at the various post offices countrywide for both local and international mailing.

At the launch in Accra Professor Akilagpa Sawyerr, the Chairman of both the VRA Board and Kwame Nkrumah Centenary Celebrations Committee, said the stamps should serve as a symbol to Ghanaians of "the unfinished business of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah."

The stamps, he said, should not only be used to post letters but serve as a confidence post for Ghanaians, especially the youth. He said the origins and purposes of the establishment of the VRA project were to transform the lives and conditions of the people not only in Ghana but continentally.

However, President Nkrumah's overthrow "brought a break of that vision which has left our economy to remain untransformed since then". Prof Sawyerr said it was good that Ghanaians went back to that vision and went beyond the issues of power outages, fluctuations and tariff increment.

He said the young ones should be told both the good and bad stories that led to Ghana's independence to help reshape their thinking and commitment towards nation building.

He also urged managements of all institutions set up by Dr Nkrumah to tell their stories to let people hear what that great visionary did for the country and the world in general. Mr Kwaku Andoh Awortwi, Chief Executive Officer of VRA, said management decided to print out the stamps to immortalize the achievements of Ghana's first President who established the Akosombo Dam and the VRA some 50 years ago.

He said VRA currently employed over 3,000 Ghanaians while the Dam provided about 1,020MW of hydroelectric power for most of Ghana today. Mr Nicholas Dery, Acting Managing Director, Ghana Post, said his company took pride in partnering the VRA to issue the four different designed commemorative stamps to celebrate the first President as the trail blazer in Ghana's development.

He explained that stamps depicted the history of any nation and "this very ones would not only do same but would add to the gallery of stamp collectors who could keep them for future exhibit and sell them for higher prices at later dates". "Indeed, these stamps are now available for stamps collectors or philatelists and admirers of the first President at our philatelic bureau at the General Post Office, Accra-Central," he added.