Nzulezu Appeals For Improved Infrastructure

The chiefs and people of Benyin, Nzulezu and other communities surrounding the Nzulezu village have appealed to the government and other tourist related investors to inject a lot of capital into the tourism in the area to maximise the benefits that could be derived.

They noted that lack of quality infrastructure at Nzulezu, the only stilt village in the country, was not helping to attract the desired patronage and but was rather denying the community and the Ghana Tourism Authority the revenue that should accrue to them.

At the moment, the Nzulezu village is not ready to receive the number of visitors that want to visit the stilt village because of lack of ferry boats that would carry visitors from Benyin, the receptive centre to Nzulezu.

About 500 revellers, who had travelled over long distances to Benyin with the hope to visit the stilt village on New Year’s Day, were disappointed as they could not fulfill their dreams because there were not enough canoes and people to paddle them across to the village.

That aside, the structures on the river have not been designed to carry the huge number of people who troop to the village every weekend and on holidays to experience life on the man-made village on the river.

The current population of Nzulezu is about 600 and the structures designed by the people themselves can carry a little over that.

This, according to the Ghana Tourist Authority, the managers of the facility, was not the best for harnessing the full benefits of this great tourist attraction.

Interestingly, with the current huge interest in the village, there is the need to strengthen the structures to withstand the additional human traffic visiting the stilt village.

When the Daily Graphic visited the reception centre and village there was no eatery for the tourists to buy food and eat. Neither were there rest houses for people to relax while sanitary conditions were also not the best.

However, the quest by tourists- both local and foreign- to visit the place keeps increasing daily prompting the chiefs and people of the communities to ask for serious investment in facilities at the stilt village to enable this great tourist potential to benefit the people and state in general.

According to the officials of the Ghana Tourist Authority, what is needed currently is the reinforcement of the structural base of the stilts and expand the village to receive more visitors.

The canoes are also too small and the only outboard motor available is for emergencies while the road leading to the reception centre is not in good shape. Therefore most of the visitors to the community get disappointed as they are not able to achieve their aim of touring the community.

Mr Michael Kpimgbi who is in charge of the Regional Tourism office told the Daily Graphic that aside the challenges, the demand for people willing to tour the stilt village was very high and there was the need for the village to position itself as the most preferred tourist destination in the region.

He said the village needed to be expanded and provided with improved entertainment facilities, traditional kitchens where food would be prepared for people to eat after a long voyage from the land to the village.

He said currently, people who visited the place returned to the Benyin to find food to eat when there should have been an eatery at the stilt village for them to eat drink and interact properly with the locals.

Mr Kpimgbi said River Manzule also had huge potential for aquaculture where tourists could buy and eat fresh fish from the river. The village lacked all these.

Mrs Cynthia Kudjoe, the Manager of the village, said the village was maintained with the little that came out of the those visitors who managed to visit the place.

She expressed the hope that there would be capital injection to ensure that things improve now that power supply had been extended to the village.