KUMASI YOUTH CENTRE LEFT TO ROT
The Kumasi Youth Centre located at Ahinsan Estate in Kumasi is fast deteriorating ostensibly due to the lack of proper maintenance culture by the managers.
A visit to the Centre by Ashanti Today on a fact-finding mission, revealed that apart from the main
building developing cracks, some other facilities meant to ensure the comfort
of its patrons are not functioning well.
These include the washrooms for the
public where water supply is a problem while the doors to some of the offices are
in a sorry state.
Additionally, the Centre does not have most of the facilities
and logistics such as those for Table Tennis, Lawn Tennis, Basketball as well
as standby generator to cater for unreliable power supply required to attract
patronage of the Centre by the public for increased revenue.
Additionally, the Centre has a very poor ventilation and acoustics. For this reason, patrons of the Youth Centre
have had to arrange for their own standby generators.
When contacted, the
Ashanti Regional Director of the National Youth Authority, Apraku-Fofie
explained that the cracks on the main building is due to the unfavourable
nature of the soil.
He said even though the Centre is suffering from serious
financial challenges as a result of unreliable subvention, the management has
started using part of the meager internally generated funds to maintain the
property saying that the maintenance could take time in view of the financial
difficulties.
One of the dooors at the Centre |
Mr. Apraku-Fofie disclosed also to GBC that some
areas are being explored to generate more income for the running of the facilities.
These include going into
partnership with some private companies while opening up the Centre for use for
more social and recreational activities.
The Kumasi Youth Centre, which was
jointly financed by the governments of Ghana and China as a social centre for
particularly the youth, was completed and inaugurated by former President John
Agyekum Kuffour in November 2007.
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