GHANA’S HOPE CITY

4thMarch 2013 was the official launch of the HOPE City Project by President John Dramani Mahama. Hope city is supposed to serve as a technology park in the greater Accra Region.  It was birthed by Roland Agambire, the group chairman of RLG Communications Ltd. A little known fact about this mega project is the name is an acronym for Home, Office, People and Environment. These serve as the pillars for the project as well. The technology city will have over 50,000 workers from the information and communications technology field, apartments to house 25,000 inhabitants; as well as a university, schools, a house and sporting amenities.

Positives
The fact that the project was initiated by the private sector is definitely a plus. If this was completely being handled by the government is highly unlikely that the project would take off. In the annual corruption index by Transparency International the country was given a score of 45/100. As Mr. Agambire said “Africa is hungry for development,” is turning the African dream into a reality. Moreover it can be used as a pilot project all over Africa to help inspire business investors with similar aspirations.

Negatives

According to Transparency International Ghana has a literacy rate of 66.6%. According to Rural Poverty Portal Ghana has a rural population of 11,830,034. Although no one can tell the future, I personally feel that majority of the population is unlikely to benefit from HOPE city. Again quoting Mr. Agambire, “…inspiration behind Hope City is to have an iconic ICT park where ICT players from all over the world can converge to design, fabricate….” So if all these foreign players are coming in, will there be space for the local population?



It is a very impressive plan, and I wish Mr. Agambire and his team all the success in the world. I truly hope (see what I did there?) that GHANIANS will benefit from city making their futures brighter. Can’t wait to see how it all turns out!! 

Photo Credits: RLG Communications, BBC.com
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