Kwasi Bonzo speaking to Daily Guide
The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Ellembelle in the Western Region, Kwasi Bonzoh, has stated emphatically that government will give a face-lift to Nkroful, the capital of the district and hometown of Ghana’s first president, Kwame Nkrumah.
He was disappointed at the bad nature of roads in the area and gave the assurance that the current government of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) had put measures in place to fix the roads.
“I agree that the road from Esiama to Nkroful is in a deplorable state, but let me assure you that steps are being taken to repair it”, he stressed.
The Ellembelle DCE stated this in an interview with DAILY GUIDE after a town hall meeting organized in collaboration with the Ministry of Information.
He told the people that before he assumed office as the DCE, he was told the terrible eight-kilometre road from Esiama to Nkroful had been awarded on contract for partial construction.
He noted that after being in office for close to two years, nothing showed that the road would be fixed and that his investigations revealed that funding was the problem.
“So we wanted to change the source of funding from government of Ghana. Now the good news is that the Ghana National Petroleum Company (GNPC) has decided to help fix the road”, he disclosed.
He continued “as I speak, the road has been awarded on contract and in the coming weeks the contractor will start work on the road. It will be an asphalt road”.
DCE Kwasi Bonzoh also indicated that roads in the northern parts of Ainyinase in the district would for the first time see bitumen from Gravel Yard through Basake to Santasu under feeder roads.
He indicated that over 20,000 cocoa and other crop farmers in the area were not able to transport their produce to the market centres due to deplorable nature of the roads.
Effect Of Oil & Gas
The DCE revealed that the establishment of oil and gas companies in the district had triggered high cost of living in the Ellembelle District and its immediate environs.
The establishment of the gas processing plant, Ghana Gas Company Limited and companies like ENI and Adamus mining in the district has brought in its wake an upward review of prices of all items, goods and services being proÂvided in the area.
According to the DCE, the most affected items included resiÂdential accommodation as well as land for real estate developÂment.
He asserted that landlords had started charging exorbitant prices on their houses in anticipation of ejecting tenants to enable the landlords to rent such houses to the workers of the oil and gas companies.
“This is not fair to the local people who are not working for the oil and gas companies operating in the area and I wish that something can be done about the situation “, he mentioned.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Ellembelle