An ultra-modern community library has been commissioned at Ashtown (Ashanti New Town) in the Manhyia South Constituency of Kumasi.
The facility is christened Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem II in honour of the late Asantehemaa.
It was commissioned last Sunday by Nana Ama Konadu Yiadom, the Asantehemaa, who happens to be the daughter of the late Asantehemaa and brother of the occupant of the Golden Stool, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.
The 200-seater capacity library, which comes as the 111th library managed by the Ghana Library Authority across the country, was initiated by the Minister of Energy and Member of Parliament (MP) for Manhyia South Constituency, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, during his tenure as the Minister of Education in the first administration of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo with his share of the MPs District Assembly Common Fund, with support from the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund).
It is stocked with 26 computers fully connected to the Internet, 10,000 assorted books for the kindergarten to tertiary levels, and filled with e-resources and digital library.
The newly commissioned library, thus replaces an old facility also called Afia Kobi Library Complex, which was built in 1990 by the then Ashanti Regional Administration Office (now Regional Co-ordinating Council – RCC) during the tenure of office of Col. E. M. Osei Owusu (rtd), then the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) Regional Secretary, with funds from the Regional Development Levy.
It was commissioned by the late Asantehene, Otumfuo Opoku Ware II, on December 27, 1990, and formally handed over to the then Ghana Library Board by the Ghana National Commission on Children in November 1994, but had been abandoned and the infrastructure therein left to decay, rendering the facility a waste of public resources, until Dr. Opoku Prempeh deemed it fit to construct the new facility as a fitting memorial for the late Asantehemaa, who made remarkable and invaluable contributions to education and Asanteman in her lifetime.
Dr. Opoku Prempeh, also known as Napo, disclosed that he was inspired to initiate the project by his passion for human development, and his desire to instil the habit of reading in the youth and the old alike to broaden their minds.
He hoped the facility would be well maintained by the Ghana Library Authority (GLA) to serve as his legacy as MP and agent of development.
The Executive Director of the Ghana Library Authority, Mr. Hayford Siaw, said with the opening of the Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem Library, a total of 1.2 million books sit on various shelves of similar facilities across the country, and urged students and the public at large to make use of the resources at the facility to upgrade their knowledge.
The Regional Director of the Ghana Library Authority, Mr. Samuel Ofosu Frimpong, acknowledged Nana Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem’s passion for education, evidenced in her Afia Kobi Serwaa Ampem Foundation.
At the commissioning of the library were Oheneba Owusu Afriyie, Otumfuo’s Apagyahene; the Mamensenhene of Kumasi, Prof. Kwasi Opoku Amankwah, Director- General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Dr. Ebenezer Ankrah, Board Member of the GLA, and Ing. Atta Opoku Agyemang, Metro Director of Urban Roads, as well as New Patriotic Party Constituency Executives.
