Rehabilitation of City Hotel begins in May

Agogo (Ash), April 17, GNA - An agreement would be signed in the first week in May to award a contract for the rehabilitation of the City Hotel in Kumasi, Finance Minister Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu has said. The project, which is being funded by the Ghana and Libyan Governments under the Ghana-Libya Holding Company, is expected to revive the one-time pride of the Asante Kingdom.

Mr Baah-Wiredu said discussions for the rehabilitation and re-opening of the hotel were concluded during his recent visit to Libya. He was speaking at a durbar to climax the 30th anniversary of the enstoolment of Nana Kwame Akuoko Sarpong as the Omanhene of the Agogo traditional area in the Asante-Akim North district on Saturday. Mr Baah-Wiredu said the government was currently spending 200 billion cedis each year on the capitation grant and the school-feeding programme.

Additional school infrastructure was also being constructed at various levels of education throughout the country to absorb the increasing number of enrolment.

Mr Baah-Wiredu advised the people to take advantage of these opportunities to send their children to school and also register with the National Health Insurance Scheme to enjoy its benefits. He said the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) was expected to be used to modernize agriculture and open up the hinterlands especially the Afram Plains and called on the people in the area to unite to ensure speedy development.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the Asantehene, commended Nana Akuoko Sarpong for his selfless and visionary leadership, which had ensured rapid infrastructure and economic development of the people in the Agogo traditional area.

He appealed to chiefs to always be at the forefront of development and spearhead the education of their people especially in the area of science and technology.

Otumfuo Osei Tutu pledged 100 million cedis every year for five years to support the medical school campus of the Presbyterian University College, which had been sited at Agogo. Mr Sampson Kwaku Boafo, Ashanti Regional Minister, said the district assembly had constructed a 350 million cedis auditorium for the university.

Nana Akuoko Sarpong thanked the people and all those who have helped him in diverse ways to bring about the needed development projects and peace in the traditional area.

He also appealed to all those whom he might have wronged in the course of his rule to forgive him and forge ahead in unity to speed up the development of the area.

A fund-raising ceremony was held to support the Presbyterian University.