The Upper East Regional branch of the Ghana Hotels Association has joined calls for the quick construction and completion of the regional airport expected to be sited at Sumbrungu, a suburb of the Bolgatanga Municipality.
Speaking to Mark Smith on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show, the Upper East Regional Chairman of the Ghana Hotels Association, Louis Tindan explained that a functioning airport in the region is one that makes business sense. It would also help boost the tourism sector in the region and aid their businesses.
Additionally, getting a handle on the conflict situation in parts of the Upper East Region would help boost the number of visits to the region.
“Certain happenings within the region have affected some of our activities. Of course the conflict situation in one or two areas within the region. Also, transportation. In the Northern Region, before now, it was almost as we are here but now, within an hour, you can go from Accra to Tamale, work and go back. Let’s say you get to Tamale in 45 minutes or an hour and you board a car that will take you 3 hours to get to Bolga with all the bumpiness and all that on the road. So all these things discourage people from coming to the Upper East Region.”
“We are hoping that a time would come where we would have our own airport. People can fly into the Upper East Region, hold meetings and close the same day, and go back. That would help our businesses grow,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Upper East Regional Minister, Stephen Yakubu restated his interest in getting the airport for the region when he took his turn at the Ministry of Information’s Press Centre to present the State of the Region Report today, Wednesday, November 2, 2022.
“I have been very interested in bringing an airport to the Upper East Region for various reasons. If you look at the Upper East Region, I think that our airport would be more viable than Tamale because the Upper East Region is bordering these neighbouring countries. You can see that Burkina, Niger, all the way to Mauritania and even Morocco sometimes, they come through here and when they come through Bolga, they have to go all the way to Tamale to be able to fly to Accra so if you have an airport in Bolga, it is going to help.”
Mr. Yakubu continued to say, “I have personally brought 3 investors to the area. They have looked at it. We are working closely with Civil Aviation. I am working very closely with the Ministry and one of them, good news would come.”
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
