Kumasi street-naming project delays

The street-naming and property-addressing project in Kumasi has been delayed as a result of inadequate funding. Only 22 per cent of the metropolis has been covered since work started in 2002 but with President John Dramani Mahama showing personal interest in the system, expectations are that the project would be continued very soon.

Last week, the President directed metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) to name all the streets and number all the houses in their respective assemblies within 18 months.

Launching the National Urban Policy Framework and Action at Mantse Agbonaa in Accra, Mr Mahama said street naming and housing numbering were crucial in the identification of places, facilitation of the issuance of business operating licenses and collection of property rates.

The Kumasi project will cover 100,000 properties and an estimated 5,000 streets in the city. It will cost about GH¢10 million at current estimates.

Kumasi has a population of about 1.6 million. In 1993, a similar project funded by the World Bank in Dakar, Senegal, with a population then of 940,046  cost $15 million.

Briefing the Daily Graphic on the Kumasi project, Mr Kofi Owusu  Bempah, the Managing Director of ASI Zipcode Systems Limited, the project contractors, said his company would not need more than six months to complete the remaining work if funding was made available.

Mr Bempah, therefore, appealed to the government and other donors to support the project.

Currently, we have completed the data gathering, mapping and all other preparatory works which are key in getting the work completed,” he said.

Apart from Kumasi, the company is working on similar projects in Accra, Shama-Ahanta, Assin Fosu, Obuasi, Tema, Tamale, Ho, Sunynai, Bolgatanga, Wa, Koforidua and Cape Coast.

Mr Bempah said the 18 months given the assemblies to complete the projects was feasible, provided funds were available.

The MD who is also the project consultant, disclosed that his outfit had also electronically programmed  the street address maps, which could be used on mobile phones. It had been done for use in Kumasi, Obuasi, Sekondi-Takoradi, Ho and Tamale and was to be extended to other areas. Besides that, a programmed navigation system had been developed for use in vehicles.

 “We did it in English, Twi, Ewe, Ga and Dagbani languages. You click on it and it gives you the direction to the place  you want to go,” Mr Bempah revealed.

He stated that the rise in the cost of goods and services had affected the cost of the project.

According to him, the system used in the Kumasi and other areas that the company was working in took care of slums and other unplanned areas.

“There is therefore no reason to fear that such areas may not benefit from the project,” he said.

Story: Kwame Asare Boadu