Ultra-modern business centre for Ashaiman in the offing

A 16-acre land was on Tuesday released to Fushian Group, a Chinese investment company, for the construction of an ultra-modern business centre to help decongest the central business district of Ashaiman.

Tema Traditional Council (TTC) who are custodians of the land popularly known as Sakasaka Park near the Ashaiman overhead, performed a short customary rite where a cow was slaughtered to purify the land prior to the commencement of the project.

Spokesperson of Joemarts Group, a Ghanaian consultancy firm partnering Fushian Group, Kwasi Poku, said the move followed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed last year in China between the two groups with a 15-member delegation from the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly including the Municipal Chief Executive, Albert Boakye Okyere.

In China, the delegation including experts, and in the presence of Ghana’s deputy ambassador to China, was convinced and satisfied with a similar project, which included modern car park, assembling plant, hotel, restaurant and shops, among other facilities.

Mr Poku stated that the required processes that would permit the commencement of the project would kick-start immediately and assured that, as stated in the MoU, all workers for the project would come from Ashaiman and its environs which in essence, would create more jobs for the people.

He said a new place had been temporarily earmarked for the resettlement of the affected inhabitants of the place who were mainly scrap dealers whose services and products would be needed for the project.

Shipii of Tema, Nii Armah Somponu, who spoke on behalf of TTC, noted that Ashaiman had been adjudged the fastest growing city in West Africa with its attendant crowding and congestion.

For this reason, he said Ashaiman had to open up for development and investment so the project was welcomed and when completed, would create jobs, ease traffic flow and give Ashaiman a facelift.

He said an international transport terminal which would link Ghana to other neighbouring countries, considering the increase in cargo flow after the port expansion, was also a component of the project but paramount, was to decongest Ashaiman.

However, the scrap dealers who were also present expressed dissatisfaction at the new place allocated to them, saying it was under the Gridco high voltage pillion which was dangerous and uninhabitable for their businesses.

They pleaded with the Ashaiman Municipal Assembly for a safer place to safeguard their lives and businesses.

FROM KEN AFEDZI, ASHAIMAN