Tourism Ministry to spend $10m on capacity building, $4m on branding

The government intends to spend $10 million of a $40 million facility it received from the World Bank for capacity building, while spending another $4 million of the fund for branding.

This came to light after the motion was brought before Parliament for approval of the allocation by the Tourism Ministry.

According to the Ministry, the lack of training of personnel in the hospitality industry has resulted in the delivery of poor services to guests and has negatively affected the country's image as a preferred tourism destination.

The Minister for Tourism and Creative Arts, Catherine Afeku in an interaction with Parliament's Trade, Industry and Tourism Committee, said part of the fund will be put into building two training institutions in the Eastern and Western Regions which will be dedicated to training personnel for the tourism industry.

According to the report by the committee, “The Hon. Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts explained that the facility will be applied to set up two training institutions in the Eastern and Western Regions dedicated to training personnel for service delivery in the Tourism Industry. She indicated that the level of education expertise and experience of practitioners in the Tourism Industry in Ghana is low as compared to what pertains in other African countries that compete with Ghana”

The Minority in Parliament, is, however, questioning the allocation by the government.

It insists that the $10 million and $4 million allocation for capacity building and branding respectively is not justifiable.

The Minority leader, Haruna Idrissu, who raised the concerns on the floor of Parliament when the matter came before the plenary believes that the government must explain the allocation further.

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By: Jonas Nyabor|citinewsroom.com|Ghana