By: Sameul Ayammah
Nkoranza South is witnessing unprecedented infrastructural development following a comprehensive inspection tour by the Bono East Regional Minister, Mr. Francis Owusu Antwi, and his team to assess completed and ongoing government projects in the municipality.
The tour covered critical interventions across health, education, and justice sectors, including the new Nursing Training College at Akropong, the Municipal Health Directorate, the long-awaited Court Complex, the 24-hour market project, the Akropong CHPS Compound, dormitory and classroom blocks at Nkwabeng SHS, and major expansion works at the Nkwabeng Technical Institute.
At Akropong, a suburb of Nkoranza, where infrastructure for a new Nursing Training College is being constructed, the Regional Minister expressed satisfaction with the pace and quality of work. The project was initiated by the Member of Parliament for Nkoranza South, Mr. Emmanuel Kwadwo Agyekum.
Mr. Antwi said the facility, when completed, will have an administration block, classroom blocks, dormitories for boys and girls, bungalows for the Principal and Vice Principal, and an ICT centre, among others.
“When I visited the site, I must say I am very pleased to see the rate of progress. The work is going on very fast and the quality is excellent. They are doing a very quality job,” he said.
He commended the contractor, consultant, the Municipal Chief Executive and the MP for their collective effort.
“We all know we don’t have enough nursing training colleges in the region, and this one will add to the existing ones. When it comes to admissions, it means more people will get access to nursing education,” he added, while thanking the President for the intervention and praying for the contractor to complete the project on schedule.
The Municipal Chief Executive for Nkoranza South, Mr. Godfred Dapaah, who was part of the tour, explained that legacy projects in the municipality are in two categories.
“The legacy projects are in two categories. We came to meet some of them which were already completed but pending payment, so we have done the payment. And then we began work on another two, namely the court and the municipal health directorate,” he said.
He disclosed that the court complex is currently about 55% complete while the health directorate is about 40% complete.
Mr. Dapaah stressed that the two projects are critical to the municipality’s development. He noted that Nkoranza was one of the first districts in the Bono East Region to have a court as far back as 1945/47, yet it has operated without a proper court building.
“They are extremely important. We intend to use one chamber as a Circuit Court and the other as a High Court,” he said. He added that the Health Directorate has been operating without office accommodation, perching with other departments.
Mr. Dapaah said legacy projects are projects started by previous governments. Some of them were started in 2016. For instance, the court and the health directorate were started in 2016, but the current administration met them at the lintel level and decided to change the design to give them a new face. He confirmed that the projects had been abandoned by the previous government.
At the Nkwabeng Technical Institute, the Principal, Mr. Christopher Mensah, lauded government for coming to the aid of the school after a massive enrollment surge. He said the school was established in the year 2019 as a community private school and in 2023, government absorbed it upon the community’s decision to hand over the facility.
He said enrollment jumped from 70 to 400 after absorption and within three years hit 1,250 students, creating a severe infrastructure deficit.
Mr. Mensah revealed that government has now intervened with two dormitories for boys and girls, a dining hall with kitchen complex, and a six-unit two-storey classroom block which is currently at roof level. An additional six-unit block at the back of the campus is an MP-initiated project.
“This project just started in January this year and now they are at roof level, with the hope that as we are doing admission now, by the time students report on the 18th, they will have roofed it for us to use as classrooms,” he said.
He said the new infrastructure will allow the school to increase enrollment to 2,000 this year and a projected 3,500 by next year.
“At this point, I thank government so far for the support given to the school, the Minister and whoever is concerned,” he concluded.
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