Will it happen? Will Kumasi get its international airport? It’s been a subject of discussion since 2006.
Just in case you don’t go to the discussion, I’d like to share a most pertinent comment from a U.N.D.P. staffer:
1. Re: international airport
Apr 18, 2007, 9:56 AM
The time is long overdue for Kumasi to have an international airport. The time is also long overdue for the decentralisation of certain important facilities that promote development in Ghana. An International Airport for Kumasi is not in any way a luxury. The reasons are not far-fetched:1.Kumasi has become a big tourist destination resulting in a massive influx of foreigners.
2. Kumasi is a big commercial and industrial city playing host to foreign visitors, businessmen and traders coming from abroad. The painful and tedious process of offloading or clearing goods at Accra Airport and later transporting everything by road to Kumasi and beyond is not the best.
3. Kumasi plays host to hundreds of thousands or millions of people from the international community every year. This is due to the the fact that Kumasi is now a big center for education and research. Most capital cities in Africa cannot even be compared with Kumasi in terms of the number of universities, tertiary institutions, research institutes and bodies, a University Teaching Hospital, a Medical School and so on.
4.Without any available statistics, there are more international travellers and passengers in Kumasi(Ashanti Region), and its neighbouring regions of Brong Ahafo, Western, Eastern than the rest of the country put together.
5. Finally, Ghana genuinely is ripe for 2 international airports to facilitate commerce, development, education, tourism and easy movement of international passengers to the northern half of the country. We are already 22 million and dynamics, parameters and reasons for having only one airport (forty to fifty years ago) have completely changed.
Let’s face the facts and DO IT NOW OR NEVER. Let’s think like Dr Kwame Nkrumah and do things proactively. Let’s be visionary thinkers and doers!
God bless.
From: Kwasi Addai_Yinkah
United Nations Development Program
Mobile: +232 33 732665
E-mail: kwasiaddaiyinkah@yahoo.com
That comment was written over five years ago, but still no international airport in Kumasi, Ghana’s second city, in sight. In fact, Kumasi will probably be lucky to get runway lights for night flights to land in Kumasi. The installation of runway lights is scheduled to be started now as I write this post…
And it doesn’t look like Kumasi will ever get an international airport given the latest news on Airports in Ghana culled from the highly informative www.accraexpat.com site:
Airports
One of President Mills campaign promises was an international airport in Tamale: Brazil has recently approved Ghana’s request to finance it.
The Government is considering the option to build a new airport in Prampram (east of Tema) to relieve traffic at Kotoka. The location has been identified and the Ministry of Transports has invited interested parties to come forward.
Yes, Kumasi will be bypassed. Tamale, the capital of the N.G.O. aid community in Ghana, is going to get the international airport. Makes sense, doesn’t it, foreign aid being the largest contributor to Ghana’s development. Allow me to speculate on the thinking that went into the choosing of Tamale,
“Hey, now Ghana will be all the more popular as an aid agency destination to bring all the more foreign exchange into the country for poverty alleviation/reduction. And Accra doesn’t lose any business to an international airport in Kumasi.”
I’m sure you can contribute to the discussion.
Watson
June 21, 2012
Everyone is eligible to benefit from national development, and so is Tamale. The North has been neglected for long and thus why projects like the SADA are ongoing in the region. An int. airport in Tamale would serve the Northern sector(esp. the 3 Northern Regions) and bring development there. Inasmuch as Kumasi needs an int. airport, Tamale needs it too and so does the ‘springing’ Takoradi. Let’s not say Kumasi was bypassed as if Kumasi deserves more than Tamale,besides Kumasi has seen more developments than Tamele over the decade. We are all Ghanaians, and we are all humans! #OneLove
Jemila Abdulai (@jabdulai)
June 28, 2012
Interesting article, and thank you Watson for your comment. I was about to say similar. It’s time we stopped looking at the development of our various regions as a ‘race’ and instead realize that any development (or lack of) adds to (or takes away from) Ghana’s entire development. My ardent hope is that we make the necessary investments to ensure that all Ghanaians, regardless of which region we hail from or live in, will have the much needed access to roads, health care, education, opportunities and to one another.
That said, you do bring up an interesting point about foreign aid and its potential increase with the new airport. However, the new airport also means that maybe, more Ghanaians and foreign investors will see the potential that Tamale and Northern Ghana has. It’s an entirely different ‘country’ up there and we’re missing a ton of opportunity. Nevertheless, its about time we got to work on these crucial projects. InshAllah, another won’t write an article in 20 years and quote you saying how Tamale/Kumasi still doesn’t have an international airport. Peace.
Watson (@xsquilla)
June 28, 2012
Thanks Sis,that was great! The North has indeed been neglected for long and it’s about time it’s developed. We pray SADA gets successful!