By: Francis Abedi
The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly says it urgently needs six million euros to avert a potential breakdown in waste management in the city.
According to the Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr. Richard Ofori-Agyeman Boadi, failure to secure the funding could further worsen the already dire sanitation situation in the metropolis. He announced this while interacting with the media in Kumasi to outline priority development projects to be undertaken by the Assembly in 2026.
Kumasi generates a significant amount of solid waste daily, with recent figures estimated at about 2,000 tonnes per day for Greater Kumasi. Several interventions have been implemented by previous city administrators to address the city’s sanitation challenges, the most recent being a 2.5 million euro EU-funded project dubbed Holistic Reinforcement for Sustainable Development, launched in 2022 to improve solid waste management in the city.
However, the challenge continues to worsen due to rapid urbanisation, poor infrastructure and indiscipline in waste disposal.
During his first interaction with the media in Kumasi to outline the priority development projects of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly for 2026, Mr. Ofori-Agyeman Boadi said the Assembly urgently needs six million euros to avert a potential breakdown in waste management.
“In Kumasi, we manage about 2,000 tonnes of waste on a daily basis, and out of the 2,000 tonnes, each tonne costs 83 cedis. So the financial muscle to manage the waste is enormous, and currently, as we speak, within the next 14 to 16 months, if we are unable to construct two new cells, the place will be full and we will not have a place to dump our waste. We need six million euros to be able to do that,” he indicated.
Mr. Ofori-Agyeman Boadi further outlined some major projects the Assembly seeks to undertake this year.
“Since I became mayor, I have been knocking on the doors of the President that Kumasi needs a theatre, and surely the President has assured that Kumasi is going to have a 1,500-seater capacity theatre. In addition, KMA will construct a paediatric centre just behind the KMA to complement the one we have at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital to serve the good people of Kumasi,” he added.
The media interaction was also used to highlight other challenges facing the Metropolitan Assembly, including severe financial constraints, mounting debts, and difficulties in urban planning and infrastructure development.
