Tourism in the Afadzato South District is to witness a big boost with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) for its development.
A copy of the MoU was presented to the Afadjato–Tagbo Falls Ecotourism Committee by the Volta Regional Director of the Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA) during this year’s Afadzato-Tagbo Falls festivals durbar here at the weekend.
The Afadzato South District has the highest concentration of tourist sites in the Volta Region, but is poorly developed.
It has the highest mountain in Ghana, the Afadzato, the Tafi Monkey Sanctuary, the Tagbo Falls, the Stalagtite and Stalagrite caves at Logba Tota, the Aflabo Falls, just to mention a few.
In his welcome speech at the durbar, Torgbui Gblemor X, paramount chief of Liati Traditional Area, bemoaned the fact that despite all these sites, the district was poor.
‘”We are sitting on a pot of gold, but we are hungry,’’ he said, adding “This is despite the fact tourism is the country’s highest foreign exchange earner.”
He noted that though the road to Afadzato and the Tagbo Falls was in a very bad shape, tourists still flock to the sites.
He was, thus, happy that at long last, the MoU had been signed to pave the way for the development of the sites.
In his speech, Mr John Agbeko, chairman of the Afadzato-Tagbo Falls Development Committee said in 2018, 9,154 tourists visited the sites, whilst as at the end of September this year, they had recorded 5,200.
He said most of the funds accrued were used to develop the sites to make them hospitable for the visitors.
The GTA Regional Director, Mr Alexander Nketiah, noted that tourism had a good potential in the region, if properly developed.
He noted that, if tourism was properly tackled, it could become the highest foreign exchange earner for the country.
He said to boost tourism, the government had launched two programmes, namely ‘”See Ghana, Feel Ghana and Eat Ghana” and “The Year of Return’’.
He pleaded with the Ghana Highways Authority to improve the roads leading to the tourist sites in the region to open them up for development.
An appeal for funds to rehabilitate the rest house for visitors yielded GH₵ 2,897.20.
FROM KUSH AGUDETSE, LIATI WOTE
