The President, Nana Addo Dakwa Akufo-Addo, yesterday performed the ground ceremony for construction work to begin on the Axim Landing Beach project.
The ceremony, according to President Akufo-Addo, was in fulfilment of one of the campaign promises he made to the chiefs and people of Axim in 2016.
The President who was on his second day tour of the Western Region said he promised the chiefs and people of the Axim area during his campaign period that if he was voted as the president, he would make sure the landing beach was built for the fisher folks to have a good place to bring their catch on land.
The Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Mrs Elizabeth Afoley Quaye, thanked the chiefs and people for their collaboration for a successful close season, saying the start of the project showed that the government was very much concerned about the fishing industry and the coastal areas.
She indicated that the project would bring about job creation and increase the food and nutritional values of the people of the area and the country at large.
According to her, infrastructural development was key to the development of the fishing industry, and advised the people to put an end to the use of wrong fishing gears and light to bring sanity to the industry.
The Omanhene of Axim, Awulae Attibrukusu III, noted that the project had been on the drawing board for years, adding that the ground breaking showed that President Akufo-Addo came to fulfil his campaign promise.
He bemoaned the state of the Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital, which never befitted the region, and pleaded with the president to build a new regional hospital for the Western Region.
President Akufo-Addo used the occasion to register his displeasure at the attack on the Omanhene of the Lower Dixcove Traditional Area, Nana Kwasi Agyemeng IX, by some unknown assailants, stressing it was most unfortunate, and asked the security agencies to arrest the perpetrators and bring them to book.
In a related development, the Chief of Sekyere Hemang, Nana Kwedukyerefuor II, thanked the president for the implementation of his government’s Free Senior High School policy.
The policy, which was implemented in September 2017, had seen some 270,000 more students enrolled into senior high schools across the country in two academic years, with all students in senior high schools, from September 2019, set to be covered by the policy.
In his remarks to the president, Nana Kwedukyerefuor II stated that “our children are determined to go to school, Nana Akufo-Addo, even if you don’t do anything else, please do this. This free education policy you have implemented is of great value. You have done very well, and we know that you will do your best to do all the other things we also want.”
The Sekyere Hemang Omanhene was speaking at a durbar organised by the chiefs and people in honour of President Akufo-Addo as part of his two-day working visit that took him to the Wassa East district.
Nana Kwedukyerefuor II, told the gathering that, “You (President Akufo-Addo) have impressed many people with your hard work, when there was dumsor, we could sleep in darkness for three days, but ever since you came into power, dumsor is no longer a problem because of your great leadership and the measures you have put in place.”
The chief continued, “We humbly ask that you continue like that. There is so much that we can ask for, but we know that you are a busy man. We trust that you will deal with the few issues that we have highlighted.”
FROM PETER GBAMBILA, AXIM
