Otumfuo interacting with Dr. Siaw Agyepong
The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, assisted by Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, yesterday commissioned the Kumasi Integrated Composting and Recycling Plant located at Adagya in the Bosomtwi Constituency at the cost of $95 million.
It is a state-of-the-art waste management facility, with the capacity to process some 1,200 of solid waste per day as well as 1,000 cubic metres of liquid waste per day, and it is a public-private partnership (PPP) spearheaded by Zoomlion Ghana Limited (ZGL).
Opening the facility, which is expected to solve many of the waste management problems in the Kumasi metropolis and its environs, President Akufo-Addo commended the Asantehene for releasing a 150-acre land for the project to be completed.
He said the project is believed to be the largest in Africa and has one cubic metric solid waste, restaurant, a clinic, cafeteria, lecture halls, administration block, a conference hall and other auxiliary facilities.
He said it is expected to employ at least 800 direct and 1,500 indirect people, saying the NPP government is committed to deepening the PPP, especially in the area of waste management. He thanked the Hungarian government for patterning with ZGL to build the facility.
He said the integrated plant has a 90% recovery rate, boosts the economy and serves as a tourism potential in the Kumasi metro.
The President tasked all MMDCEs to collaborate with the company in its operations and charged the Sanitation Ministry to see to the completion of all the 16 projects across the country.
The Executive Chairman of the Jospong Group of Companies, who doubles as the Chief Executive Officer of ZGL, Joseph Siaw Agyepong, said they expected to process above the daily waste generated in the Kumasi metropolis which is 1,200.
He said they had adopted Australian technology in waste management and said interested unemployed youth are free to seek jobs from the facility.
He said currently ZGL has 600 staff, with 45,000 operatives all over Ghana.
Ashanti Regional Minister Simon Osei-Mensah said when the NPP government took over, Kumasi was bedeviled with two major problems, that was, bad road network and sanitation issues, adding “but today one can attest to the fact that our government has done well in terms of road construction.”