Hon Felicia Adjei
Kintampo South

Mr Speaker, I am honoured to stand before you today, proud and humbled by the trust my constituents have placed in me for the second time, after I lost my seat in the 2020 elections. My journey to this moment has been challenging, yet transformative, preparing me to serve my constituency with vision and pride.

Mr Speaker, as a woman in leadership, I am proud to be part of a growing community of women breaking barriers and glass ceilings. I commend His Excellency, President John Dramani Mahama for empowering women in public service. The selection of Her Excellency, Prof Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang, as running mate, and now, Vice President of Ghana, demonstrates the President’s commitment, and the Ghanaian people's acceptance of women in public service.
Mr Speaker, to young girls and women aspiring to leadership, I say: the sky is not the limit; it is only the beginning.

Mr Speaker, our constituency is rich in tourism potential; boasting of attractions like the Kintampo Waterfalls, Kintampo Fuller Falls, and Kintampo Village. However, poor road networks and inadequate telecommunications infrastructure hinder tourism growth.

Mr Speaker, most of our roads leading to important tourist sites are in bad shape, making it difficult for tourists to access our attractions. Critical roads, such as those connecting Jema town and Amoma town to Amoma Nkwanta through Agyina, require urgent attention. These roads are a nightmare for road users, farmers, and traders. Mr Speaker Some of the major roads in need of repair include:
1. Amoma Nkwanta through Agyina to Offuman in Techiman North Constituency.
2. Hyireso through Boadi to Nyameasem.
3. Asantekwaa to Ayorya.
4. Sabule through Mansie to Subinso in the Wenchi District.

Mr Speaker, these roads are lifelines connecting our communities, facilitating trade, and promoting economic growth. I humbly call upon the Government to put the necessary steps to fix the roads. Mr Speaker, furthermore, the lack of reliable internet services affects tourists’ communication and local businesses’ ability to market their services. I appeal to the Government to invest in our tourism sector, particularly in Kintampo South, to improve lives and promote tourism.

Mr Speaker, to boost tourism, the Government can encourage local businesses to participate in tourism efforts through initiatives like;
1. Launching training programmes for local entrepreneurs on marketing their services to tourists.
2. Creating a local tourism board to coordinate promotional efforts.
3. Offering micro-grants to small businesses to enhance tourismrelated services.
4. Developing investment plans for infrastructural development in the tourism sector.

Mr Speaker, I appeal to H.E. President John Dramani Mahama to consider the repair of our roads and development of our telecommunication infrastructure. Let us work together to put Kintampo South on the map as one of the tourist destinations.

Mr Speaker, Kintampo South is ready for the 24-Hour Economy. Kintampo is ready to receive the world. Let us fix our roads and unlock the full potential of our constituency.

Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity.

Hon Abdul-Rashid Hassan Pelpuo
Wa Central

Mr Speaker, I just assumed you had forgotten that I was a Leader of this House, and that priority should be given me.

Mr Speaker, it is a tradition : So, for four times, I was on my feet and you often would ignore me. I hope this time round—I thank you for the opportunity.

Mr Speaker, tourism is a very important area and for every nation in this world, it is a key source of income to the people and a process by which a nation is exposed to the development of the economy and the beautification of the cities and other development areas that are shown to the people.

Mr Speaker, the maker of the Statement has been very specific in this description and I am happy that we are discussing tourism today. Ghana is a huge tourism center and yet, as other Members of Parliament have spoken, we have not explored this to the deepest, and it is killing the spirit of tourism to grow beyond where we know it. We have no good roads, and not enough infrastructure; and it is becoming a pain that all this potential of boosting the development of culture and reaping its benefits are just passing by while we cry for lack of funds.

Mr Speaker, various tourism types exist. Sometimes, people travel just because they want to see animals, others travel because they want to embark on an adventure, some travel for medical care, and other several reasons for which people travel.

Mr Speaker, we need to capture on one of this, the history of this country where we have come from. Where we have gone through pain, we have suffered in slavery, colonialism; all still have elements that we can explore to create value to our people and I would urge the Minister for Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts to rise to the need for expanding tourism in Ghana.

Mr Speaker, tourism is not simply the fact that you want to travel to another country. Internal tourism is as important as when you travel out of the country to see things you have not seen, to experience situations you have not experienced, to see and feel the culture, social impact and development of other nations.

So, Mr Speaker, within Ghana, we want to encourage young and elderly people to go out to other places they have never been to. Even though we live in this country, they should travel to see what they should have seen years before the travel.

I want to commend the Maker of the Statement, but to also say that the tourism perspectives that we have captured in our manifesto should be explored to the fullest, so we can effectively develop tourism, feel the joy of it, the benefits of it, and create the needed value that is in tourism. So that in the end, we are not only showing the beauty of Ghana to the world, but also, getting the benefit of it in terms of economic development.

One of the painful things that we often experience is that people come; they have heard so much about Ghana; they have heard about our independence, the struggle we went through to gain independence, and they want to come and see some semblance of it.

Mr Speaker, they come and many go back to write bad stories about Ghana. They talk about bad roads; they talk about weakness in our infrastructure, and they talk about the poor sanitary conditions. Some take pictures of them and show it to the world.

Mr Speaker, we would need to grow Ghana beyond the ordinary mention of Ghana. The fact that we grow to meet things and they are there, on and on and over and over, there is the need for us to work directly on the infrastructure of our country; the need for us to have a sensitive view about how we want the environment to look like, and this is all going to contribute to the value of tourism that we want to experience in this country.

Mr Speaker, let me thank you very much for this opportunity and thank the maker of the Statement for bringing it out. And it is important for the Minister for Tourism, Culture, and Creative Arts to make a Statement here one of these days and tell us the potential of tourism and what she would do to get us to benefit out of it.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.