The once non-functional facility that housed history of the state, the National Museum in Accra, has been reopened. The national asset, which served as a tourist attraction was opened last Friday, after renovation works had been completed by the Akufo-Addo government.
After being closed to the public seven years ago due to lack of proper maintenance, the museum has been fully rehabilitated and restored to its original state, with the inclusion of additional exhibits and artifacts.
The inner roads of the museum have also been asphalted for the first time since its establishment in 1957.To enrich the experience of visitors to the museum, seven old vehicles used by the country’s former heads of state have been added to the exhibits.
REOPEN
A colorful ceremony was held last Friday to commission the facility. As the special guest of honour, the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in his address said the effort put into restoring the facility formed part of a comprehensive vision of his administration to help create a vibrant cultural industry.
He opined that “Tourism, Arts and Culture are effective tools for economic transformation and we in Ghana can benefit from this because we possess a significant number of heritage resources.”
According to the President, Ghana has 65 per cent of her edifices linked with the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, including the oldest European edifice in Africa, the Elmina Castle built in 1482.
He added that Ghana is part of the 25 per cent of African countries with rich and rare species of both flora and fauna, which give us a considerable advantage in nature-based tourism activities.
With the tourism sector identified as the third largest contributor to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), President Akufo-Addo said the government would position the sector to contribute more to GDP.
To that end, he said the government had put in place a digitalised platform to ensure efficiency and maximisation of revenues in the tourism, arts and culture space.
“The visit Ghana app has been designed to help tourism enterprise operators to promote and market their products. There are also plans to digitalise our museums to enhance their global appeals,” he said.
PLANS
Delighted about the reopening of the national museum, President Akufo-Addo also said five ultra-modern amphitheaters in selected regions in the country were being built this year, with another five to be constructed next year.
He further announced plans by the government to provide training for stakeholders in the tourism and heritage sector to ensure their products had global appeal and to improve customer services in the sector.
He said the government had committed an amount of US$10 million to rehabilitate and build a number of tourist and heritage attractions including the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, the Cape Coast and Elmina Castles, the Manhyia Palace Museum, the Biriwa Palace Museum and the Yaa Asantewa Museum
BUSINESS MODEL
The Minister of Tourism and Creative Arts and Culture, Mohammed Ibrahim Awal, said the ministry had developed a business model to keep the National Museum active to generate revenue for the country.
He thanked the Ministry of Roads and Highways for its commitment to improve road access to key tourist sites in the country to drive the country’s tourism sector.
“This year looks very exciting for tourism. From September to December, we are expecting many tourists,” he said and urged Ghanaians to support the ministry to build the country’s tourist sector to make it attractive.
