Government funds Press Resource Centre for Ashanti GJA
The Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Eric Opoku, yesterday cut the sod for the construction of a press resource centre for the Ashanti Regional branch of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) in Kumasi.
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The two-storey project, being financed by the government at a cost of GH¢583,229.08, will take six months to complete.
It will have facilities such as a reception, a well-furnished computer room, two syndicated rooms, five administrative offices, a 200-capacity conference room, a kitchen, two dining rooms and two washrooms.
At the sod-cutting ceremony at the site for the project, which was also donated by the government, yesterday, Mr Opoku said the press centre would provide an appropriate convergence point for information gathering by journalists in the region, as well as those from other regions.
Giving the genesis of the project, the regional minister said when he assumed office as regional minister, the regional executives of the GJA drew his attention to the promises made by past regional ministers to get a befitting press centre for the regional branch.
“Given the significant role the media play in our democratic dispensation, I decided to discuss with President John Dramani Mahama, whose blessing and financial support have resulted in the actualisation of this long-cherished dream for the regional GJA.
“The project we are undertaking has been well planned to take care of the needs of the association to provide a one-stop centre that will meet the expectations of journalists in the region,” he said.
Mr Opoku expressed the hope that the facility would boost the morale of journalists to work at promoting national cohesion and development.
On that score, he challenged journalists to live by the ethics of the profession.
“The country has come far in its quest to ensure social and economic development and we cannot allow anything untoward to derail the gains made,” he charged journalists.
The media, he said, must focus on issues that united the nation rather than divisive reportage.
With the ruling on the presidential election petition just about to be delivered, the regional minister admonished journalists to conscientise Ghanaians to stand up, no matter the outcome of the ruling.
The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the GJA, Mr Listowell Yesu Bukarson, was full of praise for the President and the regional minister for the magnificent project which would be bigger than the Accra International Conference Centre when it is completed.
He suggested that the project be named after the regional minister on completion.
By Kwame Asare Boadu/Daily Graphic/Ghana