Author: Beyonce Diamond Kpogli
Ghana’s Tourism sector is poised for a big boost in the coming years. This is because the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, a National Park in Accra named after Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah has been renovated and commissioned by President H.E Nana Akufo Addo.
This comes exactly a year after he cut the sod for commencement of works on the project.
The facility, which was abandoned for decades, has finally received a facelift to attract more tourists to the country.
As the outstanding pan-Africanist of his generation, the burial site of Dr. Nkrumah, according to the NPP Government must be appropriate to suit his status and exceptional contribution to the liberation of Africa from colonialism and imperialism.
The thirty million cedis (GH¢30million) modernized Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park is in line with plans by the Government to make the Park one of the best tourism and heritage attractions in West Africa.
The mausoleum now has the tombstone upgraded, and the museum expanded with an audiovisual tunnel.
A brief tour around the facility shows a display platform of the first official vehicle of Dr. Nkrumah; an ultra-modern reception; an architectural picture reception center; a modern library; an eatery and conference hall.
Others are a VVIP lounge; first-class restrooms; and other novelle introductions to the Park including an audio-visually synchronized fountain, which lights up the park at night with colourful variety of rays of light, the first of its kind in West Africa.
Speaking at the Commissioning ceremony in the early hours of Tuesday, July 4th, H.E. Nana Akufo Addo disclosed that the facility under the late President Jerry John Rawlings never saw any kind of renovation.
“The Park, which was built in 1991 and opened to the public in 1992, in the time of the 1st President of the 4th Republic, His Excellency the late Jerry John Rawlings, had not seen any renovation since then, resulting in significant deterioration of the edifice.
It is for this reason that I instructed the brilliant Minister for Tourism, Arts, and Culture, Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, to close it down temporarily for renovation to be undertaken.”
The renovation and modernization of the Park, championed by the government of the New Patriotic Party under the distinguished leadership of H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and Ministry of Tourism, Art, and Culture headed by Hon. Ibrahim Mohammed Awal.
H.E Akufo Addo charged the Ministry of Tourism, Art, and Culture and its related agencies to promote the park and attracts more tourists to achieve 1 million domestic and international tourist visits per annum.
President Akufo-Addo urged the Ghana Tourism Authority to work closely with the Ghana Immigration Service, Police Service, Diaspora Service of the Office of the Presidency, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration to ensure smooth and successful work done.
