The Chairperson of the Appiatse Support Fund (ASF) Committee, Rev. Dr. Joyce Aryee has indicated that the over GH¢35 Million received as donations to the Fund is not sufficient to rebuild the community.
“This amount notwithstanding, we are far from reaching what we would call sufficient funds. This is because the extent of damage to the Appiatse Township cannot be over emphasized and this amount raised so far will not be adequate”, Dr. Aryee told journalists at a media briefing in Accra on Monday.
Dr. Aryee however indicated that the monies collected do not include the $5 million fine slapped on Maxam Company to pay into the fund, disclosing that Maxam is yet to pay that Fine through the Minerals Commission.
She was grateful to all contributors for their enormous contributions so far.
Dr. Aryee appealed to corporate bodies and individuals to donate generously to the fund so the Appiatse community will be built with state-of-the-art facilities and bring relief to hundreds who been rendered homeless as the explosion in that town.
The media briefing was to among others, update the general public on funds received so far and to deliberate on how to develop concrete proposals for soliciting more funds to be able to support the project which is set to begin by end of April, 2022.
To ensure utmost transparency, she gave assurance that the committee will at an appropriate time, make available to Ghanaians, the list of corporate institutions and patriotic individuals who have donated both in cash and kind to the fund and captured in the Bank Statements of the Fund.
More donation needed
Dr. Aryee said, “We are still insisting on our hash tag: ‘obiara entuabi’ to enable us make this project a reality”.
She was hopeful that the Reconstruction Implementation Team (RIT) will be equipped with the requisite funds to construct an eco-friendly, green and sustainable town that is energy efficient while re-echoing the account details to the support fund.
“Monetary contributions may be deposited in the name of APPIATSE SUPPORT FUND at GCB Bank account number 1011130036123 or Stanbic Bank account Number 9040009974967 and We encourage you to kindly send your donations through MTN, Vodafone, AirtelTigo to G-Cash short code *422*530# or Stanbic short code *718*25*096#”
The Deputy Minister for Lands and Natural Resources and Chairman of the Appiatse RIT who joined the ASF for the Briefing further explained that the amount of work to be done at Appiatse would determine the exact amount the Fund would need to raise for completion of the project.
He asked Ghanaians through the media to be patient while they put together an inventory to know how much will be needed.
According to hm, the exact amount for the project will also depend on the contractor who is awarded the contract to reconstruct the community.
Mr. Blankson Hermans, a member of the Appiatse RIT and representative from the Ghana Institute of Architects gave a summary of activities of the Reconstruction Implementation Committee, to give the media and Ghanaians a fair idea of the work done so far.
“For the time period that we’ve been working, we’ve come up with a land use plan which was developed by the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority. It forms the basis for the design that will be used for the provision of the housing and commercial facilities for the community” He said
“So we’ve inspected a root going through the main town and out of it, we’ve got about 120 of 126 bedroom houses to reconstruct. But essentially, as we develop, what we are doing now is to start with the road networks by April ending and we hope to meet that deadline”, he concluded.
