Catherine Afeku (left) making the presentation to the people of Nzulenzo
Tourism activities at Nzulenzo have been given a major boost.
Nzulenzo is a village built entirely on stilts on Lake Amanzuri in the Jomoro District of the Western Region.
This follows the presentation of outboard motors by the Ministry of Tourism to the chief and people of Nzulenzo.
The machines would help reduce the number of hours people have to spend on the river when travelling from the community to other communities on land.
The only way to get to Nzulenzo is to travel five kilometres on the lake in a local canoe, and so it is hoped that the machines would help the people travel to and from the area with speed.
The ministry has also set up a committee made of members of the Nzulenzo community tasked to ensure the place is always neat to attract more tourists.
The ministry would also embark on a number of infrastructural developments, designed for tourism growth in the area.
The Minister Tourism, Catherine Abelema Afeku, revealed this when she and her entourage from the ministry presented the outboard motors to the people at the village.
She told the people that the outboard motors would also help transport pregnant women who are due for delivery from the area to health facilities on land with speed.
Mrs Afeku also mentioned that the outboard motors would facilitate school attendance in the other communities and transport of goods from and to the markets.
The chiefs and people told the minister and her entourage, including Okatekyie Nana Anim, a member of the advisory board of the ministry, that more wooden streets or walkways should be constructed.
Nzulezo is constructed out of wood and raffia with one central walkway and to dozen houses on either side.
The most striking features at Nzulezo are the wooden accommodation facilities hanging some five feet above the lake level.
Oral history has it that the village was constructed some 500 hundred years ago by migrants from Walata, a city in pre-historic Ghana Empire which was the earliest of the Western Sudanese States.
It is believed that the early settlers or the ancestors were led there by a snail.
The snail is, therefore, a totem and revered by the people of Nzulezo.
The Nzulezu stilt village has a total population of about 600 people. The main occupations there are farming, fishing and the brewing of local gin (Akpeteshie).
 From Emmanuel Opoku, Nzulenzo