Kumasi streets to be re-named

The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) has constituted a committee to oversee the naming and possible re-naming of all streets in the metropolis.

The 38-member committee, which is under the chairmanship of Mr A. Appiah-Menka, an industrialist, is charged to compile a comprehensive list of all streets in Kumasi.

It is also to set guidelines or criteria for auctioning the streets, suggest advertising strategies and how to get interested personalities to bid. The committee is further charged to advise on any relevant issues pertaining to future development of streets in the metropolis and any other duties that may be delegated by the assembly.

Inaugurating the committee in Kumasi on Friday, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Sampson Kwaku Boafo, said naming the streets would not only help immortalised local heroes and prominent citizens in Ashanti, but would also help generate revenue for the assembly.

He said the project would also offer opportunities to the citizens to contribute towards the development of the metropolis as well as offering easy access to sites and locations by courier service operators and tourists.

Mr Boafo called on the members of the committee to strive to recognise all known and unknown personalities, who had contributed immensely to the building and development of Kumasi and name some of the streets after them.

The Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Maxwell Kofi Jumah, said it was a shame that in this modern world, nobody in Kumasi could tell friends, who wanted to visit him the street on which his home or offices were located.
He said the time had come for the city to move with modern trends, adding that, properly named streets would enable the people locate places and buildings and make it easier and cheaper to move around to do business.
Mr Appiah-Menka said a time had come for the city authorities to device new strategies to generate revenue since the daily market tolls were not sufficient to meet the expenditure of the assembly. He pledged the commitment of the committee to ensure streets in Kumasi were properly named to bring the city to international status.