President Akufo-Addo Unveils Renovated Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park In Grand Style(Photos)
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has commissioned the renovated Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park which cost about $3.5 million.
The project was secured from a 40-million-dollar loan facility from the World Bank through the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture in 2018.
The facility, located on the former British colonial Polo Grounds in Accra, holds historical significance in the country.
It was dedicated to the memory of the country’s first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. It also serves as the resting place for the remains of the first President and his wife, Fathia Nkrumah.
Since its establishment in 1992 by the late Jerry John Rawlings, visitors from around the world numbering up to about 98,000 each year, come and pay homage to Ghana’s first President, and learn about his life, and legacies. The Park is one of the 10 most visited sites in Ghana.
The President in a Facebook post said”I commissioned the renovated and modernised Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, a year after I cut the sod for the commencement of work on the project”.
“The Park, which was built in 1991 and opened to the public in 1992, in the time of the 1st President of the 4th Republic, His Excellency the late Jerry John Rawlings, had not seen any renovation since then, resulting in significant deterioration of the edifice. It is for this reason that I instructed the brilliant Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, to close it down temporarily for renovation to be undertaken”.
“It is gratifying to note that the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park has not only been renovated, but it has also been completely modernised to befit the status of the final resting place of the man who led us to independence in 1957, and became Ghana’s first President, the justly-celebrated Kwame Nkrumah. The Park now has facilities including a presidential library, receptive facility, mini-amphitheater, restaurant, freedom wall, and a digitalised payment and access system. The mausoleum has also been fully refurbished, with the tombstone upgraded, and the museum expanded with an audiovisual tunnel”.
“There is also an upgraded VVIP lounge, expanded recreational area, a modernized gift shop, and a fountain area with synchronised audiovisuals, the first of its kind in West Africa.
The thirty million cedi (GH¢30million) modernised Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park is in line with plans by Government to make the Park one of the best tourism and heritage attractions in West Africa. As the outstanding pan-Africanist of his generation, the burial site of Dr. Nkrumah must be appropriate to his status and exceptional contribution to the liberation of Africa from colonialism and imperialism”.
Find pictures of the renovation structure below
