SEKONDI-TAKORADI NEEDS SERIOUS REDEVELOPMENT (PAGE 34)

THE outgoing Chief Executive of the Sekondi/Takoradi Metropolitan Assembly (STMA), Mr Philip Kwesi Nkrumah, has stated that with the increasing interest the investor community is showing in the metropolis in recent times, the twin-city needs to be vigorously redeveloped.
Speaking to members of the assembly before his exit from office, Mr Nkrumah said his successor should take the redevelopment of a modern market complex for Sekondi and Takoradi, roads and truck and bus terminals for vehicles and waste management seriously.
“The need to look at the size and type of our roads, provide ultra-modern car parks in the central business district and vigorously pursue the development agenda of the city by creating more space has become more crucial now than ever,” he said.
Mr Nkrumah said one of the biggest problems facing the twin-city was the creation of space and the redevelopment of the two markets and expressed the hope that his successor would continue to implement the redevelopment agenda to provide the twin-city with modern structures.
On infrastructural development, he said during his eight years in office, a lot of development projects were undertaken from the assembly’s own internally generated funds, the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) and the GETFund.
These projects, he said, were in the areas of education, sanitation, health, as well as local governance.
“A total of 121 projects were executed at an estimated cost of GH¢7.3 million, with GH¢267,470 being generated internally.”
He said there were 51 projects in the educational sector, 37 in sanitation, 15 local government projects, as well as nine projects in the health sector.
Mr Nkrumah said there were positive developments in the sub-metro and that 98 projects were executed by the Sekondi, Essikado-Ketan, Takoradi and Effia-Kwesimintsim sub-metros.
The outgoing metro chief executive said his administration achieved a lot in the areas of road construction and improvement in traffic management.
He said the assembly entered into contract with a private company for the collection of property rates, business operating permits, on-street parking tolls and outdoor advertising fees.
He said the assembly also contracted some private companies to collect and dispose of waste, with some given the additional responsibility for landfill management at the temporary dumping sites.
According to him, the assembly entered into yet another agreement with a private company, Zoomlion for the supply and servicing of equipment.
Mr Nkrumah called on members of the assembly to support his successor to ensure that Professor John Evans Atta Mills’s administration successfully steered the affairs of the country to ensure the growth of the motherland.
“Finally, I urge you to continue educating the electorate on issues to ensure that conflict, insults, misconduct and hatred are eliminated so that we can move on as brothers,” he said.