Akuapem North District Assembly to provide electricity to tourist sites

The Akuapem North District Assembly is to provide electricity to all tourist sites in the area, as a measure to boost the tourism industry.

Tourist sites in the district includes eight waterfalls, rock formations and historical attractions such as the birth place of the legendary Okomfo Anokye and the Tetteh Quarshie Cocoa farm that was planted in 1879.

The District Chief Executive, Mr Edward Adu-Aboagye, made this known when the Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Affram Asiedu, toured the sites in the district.

He said with the exception of the historical attractions that include the Presbyterian Training College (PTC), the first institution of higher learning in Ghana, most of the natural sites are in the villages and therefore electrification was the first step to take in revamping the industry.

He said the assembly, in collaboration with Community Based and Rural Development Project (CBRDP), was also promoting the income generating activities of the people in the various areas so that they would have a direct benefit from the industry.

The regional minister said the visit was the first in a series of touring all the tourist attraction sites in the area to enable him know the shortcomings and then collaborate with the assemblies of how best those sites could be developed to promote the tourism industry.

He said the tourism industry had the potential to create employment for the youth and that it was a challenge for the facilities to be improved to meet standards to attract tourists.

Some of the major tourist sites in the district are the Asenema, Akaa, Abiriw, Obosomase, Nsuta and Amenepa waterfalls, Oboasabea rock and other rock formations at Akyeremateng, six-in-one palm-tree at Kwamoso, the birth place of Okomfo Anokye and his famous Oware at Awukugua, the Tetteh Quarshie farm at Mampong and the stone chapel of PTC built in 1849 at Akropong.