SOURCE: GNA
Chief Executive Officer of Mandev Ghana Limited, a civil engineering and building construction firm, Mr Joseph Kojo Mamphey, has implored traditional authorities and residents of Cape Coast to build consensus to expedite the development of the historic city.
He said the people must be done in concert with a renewed mindset to explore innovative ways to harness the boundless potentials of the one-time capital city of the country to elevate it to its deserving giant status.
Mr Mamphey was speaking at a presser targeted at reigniting the role of the media in developing Cape Coast.
The presser also updated journalists on the state of development projects being undertaken by the firm in Cape Coast, including the 10-billion-dollar Cape Coast Green City project, which was at its preparatory stage.
He observed that the Central Regional capital could potentially become the richest city to feed into the country’s growth with tourism alone, citing Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt which adds about 10 billion dollars to that country’s economy every year.
“We need to up our game as Cape Coasters and harness the tourism potential. What we have is tourism and we must fully develop that asset,” he added.
He observed that a seeming rift between the youth and traditional authorities coupled with apathy and a feeling of inferiority among others was hampering the development of the city.
“Leadership must play their part well and the youth must respect their leaders and be circumspect in their demands. Otherwise, we are going nowhere,” he said.
He noted that a renewal of the mind-sets of the people was critical to transforming Cape Coast “otherwise we will be second class citizens in our own land when others come over to invest and become successful”.
Mr Mamphey further expressed reservations about how some media houses had become a conduit for running down the city with support from a section of the populace instead of being development partners.
He urged that as agenda setters, the media should be quick to disengage people who sought to drag the name of Cape Coast in the mud for their parochial interest.
He added that it behoved the media to revoke its influence and power to galvanise support and encourage people to drive the development of the city.
Mr Mamphey indicated that the people of Cape Coast were not leveraging the potential of the Fetu Afahye enough to bring about the desired progress.
He observed for instance that the “Orange Friday”, a component of the festival had been reduced to promiscuity and alcoholism by the youth instead of capitalising on it to develop Cape Coast.
“Orange Friday started before the Chale Wote festival in Accra but look at how far Chale Wote has travelled,” he pointed.
He said the people should endeavour to ride on the back of the festival to reap the benefits by thinking differently.
“For instance, we can reach an agreement with the schools to give out some of their dormitories as accommodation for visitors who will come for the festival and the proceeds will be used to renovate the schools. Government alone cannot do it,” he said.
Highlighting what Mamdev Ghana Limited was doing on the education front, the CEO said the company had organised computer training for a number of schools in Cape Coast and was set to procure computers for them.
That, he said, was to help lift the falling standards of education in the city.
On tourism, he said his company was taking steps to plant at least 1,000 coconut trees along the beaches of Cape Coast to reclaim beach fronts, which were being lost to development.
He said the firm would also build toilet facilities for selected communities in the city to mitigate the menace of open defecation to improve tourism.
He further observed that even though some progress had been made, the company’s flagship project, “Cape Coast Green City” had been delayed principally due to the lack of commitment by some of the youth towards the project.
For her part, Mrs Alice Tettey, the immediate past Chairperson of the Central Region chapter of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) and Central Regional Manager of the Ghana News Agency, appealed to journalists to abide by the code of ethics of the Association in the discharge of their duties.
“Let us crosscheck our facts and as much as possible let decency prevail in our language on air,” she implored.
