According to regional minister Simon Osei-Mensah, development initiatives being carried out by the Akufo-Addo administration in the Ashanti Region would have been finished by this point if not for the consequences of the global economic crisis.
He claimed that the government has made significant infrastructure improvements for the area, such as the Phase II extension of the Kejetia Central Market and the Kumasi Airport.
In response to charges made by some quarters that the government has not done enough to improve the area, which also happens to be the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) stronghold when it comes to voting, he said these during a news conference in Accra on Wednesday, August 24.
Mr Osei-Mensah said “As much as I admit that the government has bot been able to bridge the gap between the regional expectation of infrastructural development and actual delivery, I am of the strongest conviction that the NPP government has not performed badly in terms of provision of development facilities in the Ashanti region.
“We have the airport expansion project to be completed by the end of this year. Whatever the situation is, this project will be completed by the end of this this year. We also have the Kejetia Central Market Phase 11 project. If we can do any proper decongestion in Kumasi, it is this project that is going to solve it.”
He added “But for the global economic crisis which has had the devastating economic effect on the country, most of these projects would have been completed. Thus bridging significantly, the gap between the actual and expected levels of development.”