ICT revolution at Suame Magazine

Picture shows Ms Natalie Schell, an intern from Columbia University in New York assisting the artisans in their training.

There is a sudden upsurge of interest among the otherwise low literate artisans of Suame Magazine for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) education.
What inspired this new spirit of ICT enterprise among the artisans appears a complete mystery to those familiar with the Suame Magazine environment where computer is largely considered the preserve of the formal sector.
The interesting point about these massive developments in the ICT at Suame Magazine is the exclusive private initiative of the Suame Magazine Industrial Development Organisation (SMIDO).
The Suame Magazine Industrial Development Organisation (SMIDO), the development unit and umbrella organisation of Suame Magazine has unleashed a revolution unprecedented in the informal sector industry of the country in Suame Magazine.
According to SMIDO, this new development is emerging as a response to findings from a survey in 2007 that indicated that less than one percent of the over 200,000 artisans at the suame magazine have email addresses and uses the Internet.
This was said to be at odds with the global orientation of their industrial operations requiring transactions with stakeholders across the world.
It was an exciting sight when the Daily Graphic visited the training centre last week to witness at first hand, how the artisans were acquiring computer knowledge.
The artisans in their usual fitting costumes were spotted busily going through lessons in ICT in a typical school-styled fashion.
I was confronted with a reality I never thought would happen at Suame Magazine’s largely independent artisanal population.
Artisans who have never sat behind the computer in their lifetime are now manipulating the computer for various designs that would leave the average visitor to the resource center pondering over whether he or she was really at Suame Magazine.
The center has four instructors with two expatriates from the Columbia University in New York.
Records at the resource center indicated that high profiled personalities like Dr Kwabena Duffour, Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, the KMA Chief Executive, Ms Patricia Appiagyei, Ms Dorothy Gordon of the Ghana Indian Centre of Excellence in ICT, Professor Vasco of the Institute of Advanced ICT Studies and a host of other dignitaries have visited the resource center to acquaint themselves with this new revelation at Suame Magazine being spearheaded by SMIDO.
The President of SMIDO described this as not necessarily an ICT revolution but a mindset to embrace the modern world of technology, which is threatening the survival of Suame Magazine and the artisanal engineering industry in Ghana.
In an interview, Mr Nyaaba-Aweeba Azongo, consultant to SMIDO revealed that plans were underway to establish an Internet café to introduce the artisans to the use of the Internet given the advances they have made at the basic stages of computing
According to Mr Azongo, the Ghana-Indian Kofi Annan ICT Center is rolling out a programme with SMIDO to introduce an artisanal engineering model of International Computer Driving License (ICDL) to offer international certification to artisans upon graduation at the resource centre.
He contended that the ICT breakthrough is an important milestone towards graduating the artisans of Suame Magazine towards the modern industrial village to be established by SMIDO on a 1000acre land at Asenemaso in the Atwima Nwabiagya District of Ashanti.
According to him, the full potential of ICT to economic development is seen as the creative sectors of the economy and said that these are the sectors that have been left behind in the nation’s planning process.
He said the formal sector was not a force to reckon with in the creative industry where ICT could introduce the magic wand for economic development.
In his elaboration, the main determinant of the creative economy is the proportion of the employment and entrepreneurial seeking ratios of the labour population.
He contended that the formal sector has a preponderance of employment seeking attitudes as against the entrepreneurial seeking behaviours of the average workforce in the artisanal or the informal Sector.
In this direction the entrepreneurial creative industrial sectors incorporation of ICT is a key instrument towards wealth creation and sustainable development.
For his part, the President of SMIDO, Mr George Asamoah Amankwa expressed the hope that the government would extend a vehicular support to SMIDO project, which was a major undertaking worthy of national commitment and support.
In another development, a team of experts from IBM, the global computer giants would be arriving in Ghana by the end of September 2008 for a one month assignment with SMIDO to support the review and curricula development of the Suame Tech Automatics Engineering Institute for ICT in vehicular diagnosis and repairs.
This is to set the basis for a formal training center for artisans in Suame Magazine and the rest of the country.
Picture shows Mr Nyaaba-Aweeba Azongo, consultant to SMIDO admiring the learning skills of the artisans

50-year Jail term for 'Kumasi Ataa Ayi'

Eric Alfred Zieme, described by the police as Kumasi’s most notorious armed robber, was yesterday sentenced to 50 years’ imprisonment with hard labour by the High Court in Kumasi.

“You are the devil incarnate,” Justice Kwame Ansu-Gyeabour, the presiding judge, told Zieme before handing him the sentence.

Zieme, 26, also known as Kumasi Ataa Ayi, was found guilty of raiding the B5 Plus Company at Buoho, a Kumasi suburb, at gunpoint on October 11, 2007 and robbing Gocrest Limited of GH¢40,504 which it had collected from the B5 Plus to be deposited at the bank.

The convict, who has nine other armed robbery and murder cases yet to be tried, had no lawyer and so he represented himself in court throughout the trial.

He was always in clutches when he appeared in court because of gunshot wounds he sustained when the police fired at his legs when he attempted to escape arrest.

The court held that the convict stood out as a person who was prepared to reap where he had not sown and build his life through foul means.

The judge said the court took into consideration the prevalence of armed robbery in the country, the evidence adduced against the convict by the prosecution, the character and antecedents of the convict, among other things, before imposing the sentence.

He said although the convict told the court that he was in Wa to attend an uncle’s funeral on the day the incident happened, he was, however, unable to prove his claim when offered the opportunity to do so.

Besides, Justice Ansu-Gyeabour said the convict’s mother, Bridget Zumbele, who was in court and had promised to furnish the court with witnesses for the convict, failed to do so and even declined to testify herself as the sister of the convict’s uncle whose funeral he claimed to have attended at Wa.

He stated that the convict admitted the offence in his caution statement to the police but denied on oath that he had given that statement to the police and also failed to prove an alibi.

He said it was abundantly clear that the evidence on oath had been a deliberate ploy and an after- thought.

The judge said the convict was unable to prove how he earned the money used to acquire his property, including the restaurant building project he had embarked on at the race course area in Kumasi.

Justice Ansu-Gyeabour also held that three witnesses, namely, Benedict Kofi Adombre, a driver whom the convict shot in the thigh, Alice Akpo and Victoria Asare, both cashiers of Gocrest Limited, from whom the convict stole the money, all came out to identify the convict during an identification parade.

The court ordered that the two cars seized from the convict on his arrest — an unregistered Toyota Corolla saloon car and an old Tico taxi — be handed over to the Ghana Police Service to assist the service in its patrol duties.

It further ordered that the remaining items seized from the convict, including a Honda motorbike, five travelling bags containing clothing, a Samsung DVD player, a Sony TV set, home theatre with speakers, two deep freezers, two satellite dishes, 35 bags of cement, 17 pieces of plywood, five packets of floor tiles and two ceiling fans, be auctioned and the proceeds paid to offset the amount stolen from B5 Plus, with the remaining paid to government chest.

The court also ordered that the restaurant project started by the convict, should be handed over to the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) for it to remodel and construct for public use.

The prosecution was led by Mr Emmanuel Otoo-Boison, a State Attorney.

Zieme has a month to appeal against the sentence.

The facts of the case were that on October 11, 2007, Benedict Kofi Adombre, a driver, Alice Akpo and Victoria Asare, both cashiers of Gocrest Limited at Adum, went round to collect money from the company’s customers.

After the three had collected money from the B5 Plus Company around 1.30 p.m., the convict, with an AK 47 assault rifle, attacked them in front of the company’s premises and shot the right thigh of the driver and robbed them of cash totalling GH¢40,504.

A report was made to the police and a medical form was issued to the driver to attend hospital.

On November 2, 2007, the police, upon a tip-off, arrested the convict from his hideout at the race course and the witnesses involved identified him as the one who had committed the offence.

The police later retrieved three guns, comprising two AK 47 assault rifles and a pump action gun, which he had hidden at various areas in the bush on the Barekese road, the Buoho area and at Brofoyedru.

The police also seized various items from him and charged him with the offence.

Ministry concludes tilapia pond feeding trials

The Ministry of Fisheries has successfully concluded a 10month pond feeding trials with all male tilapia at the Aquaculture Adaptive Trials Centre at Nkawie in the Ashanti region, and has subsequently identified pelletized feed as most suitable for commercial aquaculture production.
The objective of the trial was to demonstrate tilapia growth and economic performance from fingerling to market stages.
The all male tilapia exhibited excellent growth from five grammes to an average of 500 grammes over the 10month period when they were fed on Raanan pelletized fish feed imported from Israel by Dizengoff Ghana Limited.
The feed maintained good water quality, and no pond water flushing was required. Additionally the fish growth with the feed yielded a high economic return in the trial.
A total of 4400 fingerlings were stocked in the pond which was equipped with stand-by aeration at the latter stages of the trials.
At a field demonstration on the production of the all male tilapia using the pelletized feed at Nkawie last week, Mr Emmanuel Nii Aryee, Ashanti Regional Director of the Ministry of Fisheries said the move was a major success in the Ministry’s quest in promoting aquaculture.
This is because, hitherto, most fish farmers were not feeding their stock very well with the right feed thus the produce did not gain the weight they were supposed to before harvest.
Additionally, many of them mixed the males and females together which was also not good for commercial fish production, he said.
The male tilapia is noted for growing faster than the female and that it could attain the weight of about 750 grammes within seven months, for harvesting when fed well. Hence it is profitable to use male fingerlings instead of female fingerlings in fish farming.
The Ministry of Fisheries thus entered into an agreement with Luye Fisheries in China for assistance in the production of male tilapia fingerlings for distribution to fish farmers in Ghana.
The move was to help make high yielding fingerlings always available to fish farmers so as to serve as a boost to aquaculture in the country.
Consequently, the Ministry allocated the Aquaculture Adaptive Trials Centre at Nkawie in the Atwima District of Ashanti to be used as a pilot station for the development of what they termed, the Super Male Tilapia in the country.
Speaking at the field demonstration, the Regional Director of Fisheries said the Ministry sees pond fishing as being very good economically and thus has been promoting aquaculture on a more serious note in the last three years.
He said after the Ministry adopted the all male production method, there was also the need to identify a suitable feed so as to be able to achieve the needed results.
Mr Aryee said the Ministry decided to go for the Raanan feed because that one could float on the surface of the water making it easy to monitor how the stock was consuming the feed.
He said he was aware that GAFCO as well as Agricare have also started producing pelletized feeds and that GAFCO for instance was still in the process of trying to come out with brands that could float on the surface of water.
He said the brands of the other pelletized feeds that does not stay at the surface but sinks to the under of the water was equally good but said the floating ones were more preferable since it allows the farmer to monitor the feeding rate of the stock.
He said his outfit has assigned the Tano Odumase fish pond to produce high yielding all male fingerlings for supply to fish farmers in the Ashanti region so as to serve as a boost to aquaculture.
He said Ashanti was the leading region in pond fish farming.
Adding, he said as part of efforts to boost aquaculture, the ministry has introduced an input credit scheme where fingerlings are supplied to selected farmers as well as assisted in the construction of ponds.
Touching on the results of the trials, Mr Aryee said the exercise had thought the Ministry a lot of lessons which it could impart to fish farmers.
For instance, he said the ministry stocked a total of 4400 fingerlings in the pond which was too small for the stock and also did not mount the stand-by aeration on time.
Again he said the fingerlings were stocked in November and so when the harmattan started in January, the fishes did not eat much during that period so that also affected their growth.
Mr Aryee said lessons learnt from the trials would go a long way to assist fish farmer adding that the average weight could go beyond 500grammes if conditions are favourable.

Filth engulfs Kumasi Central Market

Customers at the Kumasi Central Market, which is said to be the biggest in the West African sub region, are welcome by filth.
Ironically many traders and hawkers sit and transact business in the midst of the filth as if good health doesn’t mean anything to them.
The openly sell foodstuffs and their wares in the middle of the road and on the pavements amidst filth which they themselves generate.
Some display their goods including tomatoes, yams, garden eggs, apples, lettuce and cabbage on the ground over a mat while others put theirs on the bare ground just next to drains filled with stagnant and stinky water.
Others especially those who trade on the streets simply carry their commodities on their hands, heads and shoulders and move around.
This is not the first time an issue of this sort had been raised. It has been raised on a couple of platforms but the situation keeps worsening with no solution to it.
What even makes the situation a bother for me is how foodstuffs especially vegetables and fruits, some of whom are eaten in their raw state is sold on the bare ground in the midst of filth.
One always wonders why there is so much indiscipline at the city centre of the Kumasi metropolis, especially at the precincts of the central market and wondered whose responsibility it was to ensure sanity at the place as the city authorities, the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) look on unconcerned.
One is not likely to see the degree of filth during daytime as the place is crowded but at night after the day’s activities.
Last Monday, as I walked on the road in front of the Central Market I was fascinated with the mounting heap of garbage and people including pedestrians and traders who throw garbage anywhere and everywhere.
I wondered how city dwellers had lost their sense of sanitation and civility questioned how people, who initially lived a clean life, create and live in such filth. Such gross disregard to health defies Ghanaian culture.
This appalling sanitation problem makes the government’s much-hyped tourism programme look like a child’s play.
The least talk about the resultant congestion on the road in front of the central market as it is neither not comforting driving through that area nor footing.
Trading activities along the streets and pavements was now as brisk as before the introduction of the exercise, which has come to nothing after spending several millions of Ghana cedis on it.
The last time the Metropolitan Chief Executive, Miss Patricia Appiagyei reacted to concerns on the aborted decongestive exercise, which it claimed it was embarking on a sustainable base to evict traders who have taken over walkways in the Central Business District of Kumasi, she accused the media of not supporting the Assembly resulting in the failure of the exercise. The KMA gave every assurance that it would sustain the decongestive exercise and evict traders who had taken over the walkways in the central business district of Kumasi.
The City Mayor alleged that some sections of the media criticised the KMA and that explained why the exercise had been stalled.
“Some media men criticised us as well as politicised it that is why we have relented on the exercise. We thought we were in partnership with you but we were wrong. You find people back on the pavements because the media did not support us”, Miss Appiagyei said.
Last year, the KMA embarked on the exercise to decongest the CBD of traders who had indiscriminately taken over the streets and the pavements and millions of cedis were spent on the exercise, yet the hawkers are still on the streets doing brisk business with its attendant socio-economic problems.
Assurances were given by the KMA that the exercise was not going to be a nine days’ wonder but would be sustained to enable residents to appreciate the need to comply with the directives of the KMA.
It is not clear what might have compelled the KMA, which in 2006 “blew” some GH¢100,000 on a similar abortive ejection exercise, to go back on its word in 2007, but the lack of political will, as the case has always been, cannot be ruled out.
The activities of the hawkers, who have taken over pavements in the city centre, have compelled pedestrians to walk on the roads, putting them at great risk.
A huge number of petty traders have virtually hijacked the business district of the city which is seriously impeding the free flow of vehicles and pedestrians.
These lawless individuals have completely taken over all the pavements in the city centre and are busily going about their ‘normal’ duties as if there were no laws to bring them to order.
For how long can residents continue to grapple with this problem?
Personally I feel there ought to be a conscious attempt to improve sanitation in that part of the city to give the city the beauty and the Garden City status it deserves.

Asantehene supports Suame Industrial Dev Organisation

The Suame Magazine Industrial Development Organisation, the umbrella organisation and development unit of Suame Magazine has received its greatest boost in its march towards the development of Suame Magazine into a modern industrial estate from the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II.
The Asantehene has pledged his support for SMIDO assigning the Akyempimhene, Oheneba Adusei Poku to be liaising with the organisation to occasion his support for the development of Suame Magazine, which he said holds significant prospects for Asanteman and Ghana’s industrial development as a whole.
Otumfuo Osei Tutu II gave his support when members of the Suame Magazine Industrial Village Committee led by its Chairman, Dr Kwabena Duffuor paid a courtesy call on him at the Manhyia Palace last week.
The visit was to formally introduce members of the committee and their mission to establish a modern industrial village for Suame Magazine to the Asantehene.
The occasion was a historic moment for Asanteman as Otumfuo personally addressed questions to them as well as allowing ample time for committee members to address his council of elders.
The atmosphere was that of appreciation and a welcome endorsement of SMIDO by Otumfuo.
The Asantehene advised the leadership of SMIDO to be transparent and truthful in their responsibilities as well as shed off any other interest apart from the genuine interest to salvage the prospects of the industrial estate, which appeared to have been at the receiving end of national policy neglect.
He applauded SMIDO for their foresight and urged them not to relent in their efforts to develop Suame Magazine.
He advised them to have confidence in themselves and to ensure that state- of –the- art technology was infused into the operations of the industrial estate to enable them keep pace with modern technology.
The Chairman of the committee, Dr Kwabena Duffuor said his conscience has never been deeply exercised and challenged in his numerous official calls to take up responsibilities than the one from SMIDO and Suame Magazine.
He said, with the virtual collapse of the Timber and Wood industry in Kumasi, the shoe industrial enterprise, the worst will be for them to approach Suame Magazine with apathy.
Suame Magazine is the very economic heart of Kumasi, Asanteman and Ghana as a whole, he said and added that the best service they can render to Asanteman and Ghana, as a whole will be to support SMIDO in its bid to Develop Suame Magazine into a modern industrial Village.
The President of SMIDO, Mr George Asamoah Amankwa used the occasion to present a special copy of the SMIDO blueprint to the Asantehene and the Asanteman Council.
The Asantehene, who was visibly enthused by the exceptional strides of SMIDO in its brief moment in Suame Magazine by pulling together a high-profiled committee under the Chair of Dr Kwabena Duffour and Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, whose advocacy for science and technology driven development, could not hide his joy but to commend the leadership of SMIDO for such a sterling accomplishment.
Mr George Asamoah Amankwa, briefed Otumfuo about the formation of SMIDO out of BUSAC fund’s support to Suame Magazine and the progress made so far particularly the establishment of an ICT resource center to train artisans in the basics of computer towards the adoption of ICT vehicular diagnosis and repairs.
The rest of the committee members Professor Frimpong Boateng, Miss Dorothy Gordon of the Ghana Indian Kofi Annan ICT center and ,Mr Nyaaba-Aweeba Azongo, the consultant to SMIDO each took turns to brief Otumfuo about the project and their individual and collective roles towards the development of the SMIDO initiative.
Professor Frimpong Boateng in his remarks noted that given the uneconomic parcels of lands available for Agriculture, mechanised farming was a viable investment enterprise in the region.
Against this background, he noted that the only option left to the region was to adopt technology for which it has an exceptional comparative advantage in the country with the existence of Suame Magazine and the KNUST.
He said, the Suame Magazine Industrial Village Project for which he has been appointed to facilitate with Dr Kwabena Duffuor was not a task beyond their capacity and that given the required support and encouragement the region would soon witness a globally competitive technologically advanced industrial village in Kumasi.
Later in an interview with the Daily Graphic, the Consultant to SMIDO, Mr Nyaaba-Aweeba Azongo said the Asantehene has always been represented in their numerous national events.
He said, they have been greatly inspired and alive to the testimony of Otumfuo’s unparallel passion for meaningful development programmes in the region.
According to Azongo, he hopes the political leaders of the region would take a cue from the exceptional demonstration of leadership by Otumfuo to come on board in a non-partisan manner to equally lend their weight behind the project as a national undertaking.
He said political leaders in the region have a duty towards supporting Suame Magazine’s development which could not be sacrificed or shirked under any excuses.

Expansion work progresses at Barekese

The Board of Directors at the Ghana Water Company Limited (GWCL) has expressed appreciation at the progress of rehabilitation and expansion works at the Barekese and Owabi Headworks which supply pipe-borne water to the Kumasi metropolis and its environs.
The GWCL was currently embarking on rehabilitation and expansion works at the Barekese and Owabi headworks so as to be able to increase the supply of pipe-borne water to the Kumasi metropolis.
The Board Chairman, Mr A. R. Musah, who led a team of board members to inspect progress of work at the two headworks at the weekend, expressed appreciation with the quality of work.
The visit was to enable them acquaint themselves with work so far done on the ongoing rehabilitation and expansion project.
The project which was more than 30 percent complete is being funded by the government at a cost of Euros 37,999,870.
The Kumasi metropolis would be supplied with 27million gallons of water per day upon the completion of the project in October 2009.
The Barekese Headworks currently has capacity to produce 18million gallons of water per day whiles that of Owabi has capacity to produce three million.
However the two headworks are unable to produce at their full capacity because of obsolete machinery.
The expansion works was expected to increase the capacity of Barekese by an additional six million gallons thereby producing 24million gallons per day.
The Board chairman of GWCL expressed satisfaction with the work done so far and expressed the hope that it would be completed on schedule.
Members of the board that accompanied the chairman were Mr E. Adjei Boye, Ms Susana Mensah, Mr R. Obiri Yeboah, Mr Kwaku Amoa Gyarteng, Mr P. M. A. Pecku. Others were the Deputy Managing Director of the GWCL Mr Kwaku Botwe, Mr Fred Lokko, Ashanti Regional Chief Manager and the project consultant, Mr Anthony Amankwah.
The project is being executed by Taysec Construction Company.

Stray cow causes accident in Kumasi

The reason why stray animals should not be allowed on the street was given meaning on Tuesday morning as a stray cow crashed into a taxi cab on the Asokwa-Baba Yara Sports Stadium road in Kumasi.
The accident resulted in injury to the driver of the taxi cab and four passengers of the vehicle.
The taxi cab, a Kia Pride with registration number AW 1397 Y was also badly damaged as the front and rear windscreens were smashed together with the bonnet and roof of the vehicle.
The fat cow also died on the spot.
Eyewitness said the cow was being followed by a shepherd boy on the shoulders of the road at about 6am when all of a sudden it jumped on to the road and crashed into the oncoming car.
The car hit the animal head on and lifted it over the roof.
The shepherd boy was said to have taken to his heels immediately after the accident as the driver who was only indentified as Alex also tried to pursue him but was unsuccessful in arresting him.
The matter was later reported to the Asokwa Police.

Another fuel tanker in accident

A fuel tanker was on Monday night involved in an accident which resulted in the tanker catching fire at Asokwa near the Mckweon Restaurant on the Asokwa-Baba Yara Sports Stadium road.
Four vehicles, which had been parked by the road side were burnt together with the tanker.
There were no casualties as the tanker driver escaped unhurt from the vehicle before it burst into flames.
This brought to three the number of tanker trucks which had been involved in an accident and catching fire in the Ashanti region in the last two weeks.
The first was at Adum in Kumasi which claimed three lives and the second was at Atwedie in the Asante Akyim South District which resulted in injury to four persons including a policeman and a fireman.
The cause of this latest incident was not clear but it was believed a break failure might have caused the accident.
The vehicle with registration number AS 7401 F veered off the road and landed in a gutter just in front of the Mckweon Restaurant at Asokwa.
The incident happened about 200 metres away from the Engas Filling Station, which exploded about a year ago claiming some lives including the owner of the station.
Eyewitnesses said the vehicle burst into flames shortly after the driver had escaped from it after the accident.
They said thick black smoke drifted into the evening skies, as frightened residents rushed out of their homes to escape to safe areas. Fire fighters had a difficult task controlling the blaze, and had to spend about two hours before bringing the situation under control. The accident was said to have happened a few minutes after 8pm and the fire started afterwards as the fuel drifted into the drains with the fire running through the drains from where the tanker fell.
The fire caused destruction to telephone and electricity cables.

EIA report on energy project ready

An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) scoping report had been submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) so as to help pave the way for the construction of the plant to generate between 30 and 52 megawatts of electricity from garbage in Kumasi.
The almost US$136 million project is expected to generate energy from the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly’s (KMA’s) landfill site at Oti to serve the Kumasi metropolis, depending on the volume of waste supplied to the landfill site per day.
The gas from the waste materials will be used to generate energy.
Cinergex Solutions is the sole financier of the project, excluding Value Added Tax (VAT), and is expected to use 14 months to construct the plant, when actual construction work begins.
The project is to be on a build-operate-and-transfer (BOT) basis and as a result Cinergex has consequently signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
The electricity produced by the waste-to-energy plant will supplement the ECG’s power supply from the Volta River Authority (VRA) for the Kumasi metropolis.
Mr Anthony Mensah, Director of Waste Management at the KMA who was responding to a question on the progress of work on the project in an interview with the Daily Graphic said the financiers of the project have gathered and analysed all relevant information on the proposed undertaking to determine the likely consequences if the undertaking was implemented and has forwarded it to the EPA.
He said the EPA which was currently reviewing the report was expected to issue a provisional permit to pave way for constructional works on the project.
Asked why the EPA permit had delayed as of now, Mr Mensah said the financiers initially assumed that the EPA permit covering the landfill site would have covered the plant only for them to realise later that they needed a whole new permit for the plant.
He said consultants have been commissioned to prepare the two phases of environmental impact assessment reports, that of the scoping and final reports.
He said the scoping report was ready and had been submitted to the EPA for review leading to the issuance of a provisional permit after which the final report would be sent for the final permit.
Mr Mensah said his understanding was that once the provisional permit was issued, the financiers of the project would release funds for the purchase of the components of the plant for onward shipment to Ghana from the United States of America (USA) and Canada respectively.
He said the plant itself entails a lot of pre-fabricated components which would be mounted on a concrete sub structure.
The Waste Management Director said the financiers have since engaged a surveyor to assess where the plant would be mounted at the land fill site.
President John Agyekum Kufuor performed the sod-cutting ceremony at the project site in May 2007. Prior to that, the government, through the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment, and the KMA signed a contract with the contractors, Cinergex Solutions Limited from Canada in November 2006 for the construction of the plant.
The energy to be generated by the plant would depend greatly on the volume of waste supply to the landfill site and, according to experts, 500 tonnes of waste per day will generate 12 megawatts of electricity, 1,000 tonnes will produce between 30 and 52 megawatts of power, while 1,600 tonnes of waste per day will produce a maximum of 60 megawatts, which happens to be the maximum capacity of the plant.
The Kumasi metropolis currently generates about 1,200 tonnes of waste per day.
It is the desire of the KMA to liaise with other assemblies nearby to supplement and complement its waste requirements so that the plant could operate at full capacity.
The issue of waste collection and sanitation in general had been a major challenge for local authorities and that it was good news that energy could now be generated from waste in Ghana.