Plans To Upgrade Mole, Kakum Parks

The Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission is to upgrade the Mole National Park in the Northern Region and the Kakum National Park in the Central Region to become world-class facilities.

The investment options for the Mole Park are a 100-bed two-star or three-star hotel, a 60-bed lodge, or a 24-bed luxury bush lodge.

The estimated investment required for the 100-bed facility is $2 million, while the 60-bed and 24-bed facilities are each to attract an investment of $1.5 million.

With regard to the Kakum National Park, any interested investor would be required to construct a 48-bed forest hotel in the three-star category, at the cost of $2 million, or a 36-bed forest lodge in the three-star category with a value of $1.5 million.

Consequently, a forum has been organised in Accra to examine the bids for the project and also afford the Wildlife Division the opportunity to inform major players in the tourism establishments about its new business drive and unveil its plans for attracting private sector investments into tourism facilities within protected areas in the country.

In a speech read on his behalf, the minister for lands, forestry and mines, Professor Dominic Fobih, said a 450-metre airtrip had been constructed at the Mole National Park with the help of the British Department for International Development (DFID).

He reiterated government's commitment towards the sustainable development of the tourism sector and urged the private sector to play a pivotal role in that direction.

The minister said although Ghana was endowed with rich natural resources, the potential of tourism development had not been fully explored.

He said any move, therefore, to develop tourism in the country, especially nature-based tourism, was important and welcome.

He said the Government was calling on the private sector to help because it recognised the fact that the private sector was the engine of growth and that wildlife-based tourism could not be promoted in the country without the active participation of the sector.