The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has directed that the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) should not be involved in the allocation of stores in the Phase II of the Kejetia Redevelopment Project.
The Ashanti Overlord has, therefore, charged the Ashanti Regional Minister to take up the responsibility of allocation of stores at the place.
Otumfuo emphasised that the Ashanti Regional Minister, heading the Regional Coordinating Council, should take up the responsibility and should not allow the KMA to partake in the allocation exercise, to ensure that the stores are allocated to deserving persons.
The Asantehene, who was addressing the end of year meeting of the Regional House of Chiefs in Kumasi, last week, said allowing the KMA to handle the allocations would deny the affected traders access and, thereby, cause untold hardships to traders, just as it happened during the first phase allocation.
He asked the RCC to ensure that all the traders who had been relocated from the Central Market to pave way for the project are served first, before any other persons were considered.
Meanwhile, the Asantehene has called on the government to ensure that those projects that had the potential to create jobs for the people are given the necessary funding to be completed.
The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah, who was at the Regional House of Chiefs’ last meeting of the year, to brief the members on projects currently ongoing in the region, said since assuming office in 2017, the government had paid attention to the road and health sectors in the region because the region had one of the poorest road networks in the country.
The Minister said 318km out of a total of 948.9 kilometres of highway roads awarded on contract had been completed. He also said about 203 contracts on feeder roads had been awarded, translating into 2,679km of roads.
Minister Osei-Mensah admitted that some of the Contractors had left site as a result of the inability of government to honour some of the certificates.
He, however, assured the chiefs that all road projects in the region would be completed to ease the challenges facing most of the residents.
He said the first phase of the Kejetia Redevelopment Project changed the initial use of Kejetia from a transport terminal to a market, thus forcing over 900 vehicles onto the streets, hence the congestion at the Central Business District. He, therefore, assured that the second phase would create space for vehicles to ensure that the drivers leave the streets.
