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80,000 residents in Kumasi benefit from household toilets
Ms. Cecilia Abena Dapaah (in cap), Minister, Sanitation and Water Resources,
inspecting one of the facilities
So far 80,000 people have been provided with household toilets under the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Assemblies’ Sanitation and Water Project (GKMA-SWP) of the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources.
This followed the construction of 10,000 household toilets, since the start of the project a year and half ago.
Also, the project has awarded contracts to 129 contractors to provide 120 schools with toilets.
These came to light during a working tour of the sector Minister, Cecilia Abena Dapaah, to monitor the progress of work,here.
It is recalled the Minister, in November 19,2021,launched the GKMA-SWP project as part of government’s determination to provide pragmatic measures to find a lasting solution to the water and sanitation problems in the country.
The World Bank funded project is expected to construct 30,000 household toilet facilities in the GKMA before the close of the project in December 2024, with the bio-digester toilet system being the main containment technology.
It is an extension of the Greater Accra Sanitation and Water Project (GAMA- SWP), which started from 2015.
After a successful project implementation at the end of 2020, the Ministry of Sanitation and Water Resources, with financial and technical support from the World Bank, agreed to extend the project to Greater Kumasi until the end of 2024.
In Kumasi, the project is being implemented in eight Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies(MMAs)- Asokwa, Oforikrom, old Tafo, Suame, Kwadaso, Asokore Mampong Municipal Assembly, Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) and Ejisu Municipality.
Ms. Dapaah was full of hope the target would be met as she expressed satisfaction about the contractors’ performances.
During the visits, she took her time to interact with some of the beneficiaries and stressed the importance of maintaining the facilities.
At Oforikrom, Asokwa, Ejisu-Besease,among other places visited, the institutional toilet facilities were at their completion stages.
These facilities have private places for the school girls to enable them feel comfortable to manage their menstruation safely, hygienically with confidence and dignity.
Project Coordinator, George Asiedu, stated that the total cost of the project was $125 million out of which $51,550 million has been allocated for water supply which was being managed by the Ghana Water Company Limited with the sanitation component having $73,450 million.
According to Mr. Asiedu, 67 per cent of the sanitation fund had been spent so far on the project.
He said that government had absorbed over 75 per cent of the cost of construction of the toilets which households were expected to pay only GH¢1,200.00 for a complete toilet and GH¢700.00 for biodigester if they had the toilet building already.
From Kingsley E. Hope, Kumasi
President John Dramani Mahama has commissioned four career diplomats as ambassador-designates to represent Ghana in four countries.
The commissioning ceremony took place on Friday, October 16, 2026.
The new envoys are Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo, Ambassador-Designate to Angola; His Excellency Louis Kwame Obeng, Ambassador-Designate to Qatar; Her Excellency Evelyn Korantemaa Ofosu-Amable, Ambassador-Designate to Israel; and His Excellency Jedidiah Reuben Adogla, Permanent Representative-Designate to Switzerland.
President Mahama charged them to advance Ghana’s national interests through strategic partnerships, economic diplomacy, investment mobilization, and expanded access to international markets.
He said Ghana’s diplomatic engagements must deliver tangible economic benefits, create jobs, and strengthen the country’s standing on the international stage.
The four envoys are career diplomats with over 27 years of experience.
On behalf of her colleagues, Her Excellency Nana Antwiwaa Dodoo thanked the President for the confidence reposed in them and pledged their commitment to emulate his leadership and deliver on the mandate given to them.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
The professor who spends his days exploring the intricacies of African languages found himself at the centre of a different kind of lesson on Friday, October 2, 2026. 
This time, there were no lecture notes, academic arguments or university classrooms. Instead, there was the weight of tradition, the rhythm of a community celebration and the solemnity of an oath at a royal palace.
Professor Ọbádélé Kambon, a full Professor of African Linguistics at the University of Ghana, was enstooled as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene of Akuapem Mampong in the Eastern Region in a ceremony that brought academia and traditional authority together.
For the professor, the occasion was more than a new title. It was a moment that connected his academic interests in African languages and indigenous knowledge with the living traditions of an Akan community.
The day’s events unfolded through a series of customary observances. Kambon was first taken to the compounds of the Ɔkyeamehene and Gyasehene, where the preparations for his installation continued.
Then came the application of hyire, the white kaolin powder associated with traditional rites.
With the customary proceedings underway, the new chief was lifted onto the shoulders of celebrants and carried along the main thoroughfare of Akuapem Mampong.
The procession transformed the streets into a public stage for a ceremony rooted in the community’s traditional institutions.
There was something striking about the image, a university professor, accustomed to the measured language of academic discourse, being carried through the town in a display of traditional recognition.
Yet the celebration was not complete with the procession.
A ram was sacrificed at the Mamponghene’s compound before Kambon was taken to the palace, to swear the oath associated with his new offices.
The ceremony brought him formally into his roles as Apagyahene and Sunsum Ɔsahene.
Beyond the colourful proceedings, the titles themselves carry layers of historical meaning.
Kambon in his research explores the historical connections between Apagya and Akan political and military organisation.
Accounts cited in his work linked Apagya to an asafo, or military company, while historical writing traces an Apagya stool in Asante to the reign of Opoku Ware I in the eighteenth century.
These historical associations offer a glimpse into the institutions that have shaped Akan society over generations, although they do not automatically define the precise responsibilities of the office in Akuapem Mampong.
Kambon’s own professional life reflects a similar interest in preserving and examining African knowledge.
His work encompasses Akan language structure, naming practices across the Black world, proverbs and indigenous intellectual traditions.
Through Abibitumi, the platform he founded, he also promotes language learning, scholarship and cultural engagement.
But tradition was only one part of the story that day.
When the formal ceremony gave way to a reception, the occasion expanded into a celebration of three milestones: Kambon’s enstoolment, his promotion to full professor and his daughter Ama’s admission to the University of Ghana.
The gathering therefore carried a personal significance that went beyond the honours bestowed on one man. 
It celebrated professional advancement, the continuation of family aspirations and a connection to cultural heritage.
For a father, seeing a daughter gain admission to the same university where he holds a distinguished academic position offered another reason to celebrate.
For the professor, the moment placed family achievement alongside his own professional and traditional milestones.
Kambon had already established a place in the traditional life of Akuapem Mampɔn through an earlier installation as Banmuhene Kyidɔmhene, recorded in 2017.
His latest enstoolment adds another chapter to that relationship.
In Akuapem Mampɔn, the day brought together the university, the palace and the family table in one celebration. And for Kambon, the journey from the lecture room to the traditional procession showed how scholarship, cultural responsibility and family achievement could converge in a single memorable occasion.
By Enoch Ntiamoah Siaw
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