A nine-member board of Directors of the Papaye Recreational Village at Konkonuru in the Akuapem South Municipality of the Eastern Region, was Thursday inaugurated here with a call on private sector to help bolster the nation’s tourism sector.
The board will among other things, provide policy direction and innovations aimed at making the ecotourism enclave second to none in the country.
It has as Chair, the Aburihene and Adontenhene of the Akuapim Traditional Area, Nana Gyan Akwasi II.
It also has the Executive Chairman Papaye Fast Food Company Limited, Dr Samir Kalmoni and Mr Frank Appiah, a chartered marketer and Mr Devine Kwadwo Asiedu, Chief Executive Officer of Papaye and Mr Ransford Tetteh, a former Editor of the Daily Graphic
The rest are Kwabena Attefuah Ankamah, a lawyer; Kofi Osei; a land economist, Elizabeth Safoa-King, a human resource expert and Alhaji Abubakar Tafayi, a businessman.
The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Akuapem South, Mr Frank Adu, who inaugurated the board commended management of Papaye for the ecotourism facility which would not only provide jobs but also contribute to the country’s tourism sector.
He charged them to uphold the tenets of good corporate governance of fairness, accountability and transparency adding, bring your wealth of experience expertise to bear on the Papaye Recreational Village.
The Eastern Regional Minister, Eric Kwakye Darfour, in a speech read on his behalf by Madam Juliet Obeng of the Regional Coordinating Council, praised management of the company for the vision. saying the tourism potential of the country was enormous and therefore asked the board to provide strategic leadership to the company to enable the company to achieve its set vision and mission.
The Regional Minister expressed the government’s commitment to create the enabling environment for foreign direct investment to spur the country’s development.
In response, the board chair, Nana Gyan Kwesi II, thanked the management of the Papaye for the confidence reposed in them and assured that they would deliver on their mandate.
He commended Dr Kalmoni for his vision in the tourism and the hospitality sector by way of the great ecotourism infrastructure he had put up at the village.
He assured them of the traditional rulers commitment for the sustenance of the facility.
Mr Frederick Adjei-Rudolph, Eastern Regional Director of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) who chaired the function, urged them to summit a policy to the GTA to enable the facility to be certificated when it starts operating.
FROM NORMAN COOPER, KONKONURU