Hot!
Boti Falls losing its beauty, relevance …due to bad roads
Boti Falls
The Eastern regions’ tourism pride, the Boti Falls, the only twin water falls in Ghana is under serious threat of losing its beauty and relevance on the world’s tourism map.
The problem is not illegal felling of trees, bush fires or land litigations that have been a threat for its survival.
The biggest concern for tourists and other visitors to the place has been the bad road network to the Falls.
“Very soon, there would not be any Boti Falls in Ghana because there would be no access road to the place,”Dade Mantse Kwame Teye Okletey told The Spectator in a chat.
Dade Mantse Okletey made the appeal at this year’s Eastern Regional World Tourism Day celebration at the Boti Falls Resort last Wednesday.
“The road network to the Falls is making it unattractive for people to participate in any activity there”
The Falls has been created by the Pawnpawn River which takes its source from a mountain at the Ahenkwa-Amalakpo Forest Reserve before falling over an igneous rock outcrop at Boti Langmase, near Huhunya Forest Reserve in the Yilo Krobo Municipality in the Eastern Region.
The facility is located about 17 kilometres north-east of Koforidua, the Eastern Regional capital, about 30 minutes’ drive from Koforidua andan hour andhalf drive from Accra.
Due to the bad nature of the road, there have been frequent break-down of both commercial and private vehicles, school buses, researchers and tourist vehicles visiting the sight.
“The road to the Falls is so bad that visitors have refused to visit the place for fear that their vehicles would break down” he said.
He advised the government to turn its eye to the tourism sector, especially the Boti Falls to enable more tourists to visit the facility to generate income for the country.
Speaking on the theme for the celebration, “Tourism and Green Investment” the Dade Mantsesaid, his people could ‘green’ the area but the bad road network would make it unattractive for tourists to drive through it.
, Dade Mantse Okletey urged the inhabitants of the area not to leave the tourist sites in the hands of politicians because governments would go and come but the sites would still be there to generate employment and revenue for them.
The Eastern Regional Director of Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Madam Dinah AduOwusu said the environment was getting degraded and tourist sites were also being threatened, the reason this year’s tourism day celebration theme was chosen to inform the citizenry to plant more trees.
She said the 2023 National Tourism Day celebration was held at Ada in the Volta Region and commended the Forestry Commission for providing seedlings to the Eastern region for planting to commemorate the occasion.
The Manager of the Boti Falls Resort, Mrs Irene AkuaDjandjoe also expressed concern about the road network to the Resort and appealed to the Assembly to rehabilitate it for commuters.
She said, Kingdom Ventures, managers of the facility had invested huge sums of money to bring the Falls to at least International standard but the bad road was posing a great challenge to realising that.
A driver, Daniel Teye who ply Koforidua to Boti said the fare is GhȻ 15.00 but due to the nature of the road they do not get passengers.
He said a journey of about 30 minutes sometimes takes two hours depending on the number of passengers in the vehicle.
Daniel Teye appealed to the government to come to their aid, saying he sometimes fear for the sick and pregnant women since it is very difficult to get vehicles to convey them to access health care in the city.
From Samuel OpareLartey, Boti Falls, Huhunya
Hot!
GEXIM deepens relations with US EXIM Bank
A management team of the Ghana Export – Import Bank (GEXIM) led by the Acting Chief Executive, Sylvester Mensah met with the leadership of the Export–Import Bank of the United States (US EXIM) on Wednesday April 23, 2025 in Washington DC, United States of America.
The Acting President and Chairman of US EXIM, Mr. James C. Cruse and Vice President, International Relations, Ms. Isabel Galdiz received the GEXIM delegation, which included Deputy CEO for Banking, Mr. Moses Klu Mensah and Head of International Cooperation, Mr. Jonathan Christopher Koney at the headquarters of US EXIM.
The meeting offered the GEXIM team the opportunity to share the strategic direction of the Bank in line with the resetting agenda of the President of the Republic, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama for the repositioning of the Ghanaian economy into an export-led one by providing the requisite investment to Ghanaian businesses.
Mr. James C. Cruse expressed US EXIM’s eagerness to deepen its existing relations with GEXIM and proposed the signing of a new Cooperative Framework Agreement following the expiration of a Memorandum of Understanding signed in 2019 to utilize US EXIM’s medium term loan guarantees to procure machinery by GEXIM for qualified Ghanaian Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).
Mr.Sylvester Mensah thanked the Acting President and Chairman of US EXIM for hosting the GEXIM delegation and reaffirmed the Ghanaian government’s commitment to strengthening trade and investment between Ghana and its global partners for economic transformation of Ghana with GEXIM playing a pivotal role.
The two teams will be meeting on the sidelines of the 2025 US EXIM Annual Conference on 29th and April 30, 2025 to explore possible areas of collaboration and matching Ghanaian businesses to American companies. The meeting ended with an exchange of gifts.
Hot!
Many SOEs have been used as mere instruments for personal wealth accumulation –Pres.Mahama
President John Dramani Mahama has expressed concern over the misuse of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) for personal financial gain by individuals in leadership positions.
Speaking during a meeting with Chief Executives of specified entities under the State Interest and Governance Authority (SIGA) on Thursday, March 13, the President directly attributed the dire state of SOEs to their leadership, accusing chief executives, management teams, and governing boards of prioritising personal enrichment over organisational efficiency.
He pointed to bloated budgets, unjustified allowances, and unnecessary expenditures as factors draining public funds while SOEs continue to rely on government bailouts.
“Many SOEs have been used as mere instruments for personal wealth accumulation by appointees. The chief executives, management, and boards of these enterprises are responsible for this situation. Some SOEs have become perennial loss-makers, draining public funds with bloated budgets, unjustified allowances, and unnecessary expenditures while relying on government bailouts as if entitled to them. Many of these entities are at their lowest point in the entire history of the Fourth Republic,” he said.
President Mahama further noted that many SOEs have been plagued by inefficiencies, corruption, and mismanagement, leading to consistent financial losses. He cited the 2023 State Ownership Report by the State Interests and Governance Authority (SIGA), which highlighted systemic inefficiencies and wasteful expenditures within these entities.
He therefore reaffirmed his commitment to reforming under-performing SOEs and ensuring they serve national interests.
He warned that loss-making SOEs will no longer be tolerated and will either be merged, privatised, or closed.
“I will assess you based on your performance. If you do not align with the pace of the reset agenda, you may be asked to step aside. If that adds to the horror movie, so be it,” he added.
Source: Myjoyonline.com
