AMA Validates Street Names

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has held a day�s stakeholders meeting to validate the proposed street names chosen by the Assembly in consultation with the various communities in the Metropolis. The organization of the workshop was aimed at giving the public the opportunity to participate in the authentication of the 3,584 proposed streets that had been assigned names. It was also to create awareness on the Street Naming and Property Address Project being implemented by the AMA. Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije, Mayor of Accra, speaking to the gathering at the event, said identifying streets, buildings and plots of land, had become challenging because of the dramatic demographic shift from rural areas to the cities. He said most streets have no names or addresses, noting that the exercise is crucial to effective urban management and national development. �Indeed no one today can really foresee the quandary in which Accra will find itself in 10, 20 or 30 years� time if efforts are not made to have a proper street addressing system in place,� he observed. The Mayor of Accra further indicated that street naming makes the city user-friendly, improves the system of street coordinates to enable people get around the city easily and facilitates the work of health, fire and police personnel, among others. He said after the validation workshop and public forums, the feedback would be incorporated into the exercise and approved by the Accra Planning Committee. �We have also started the ground exercise to track all houses and properties and we will assign numbers to every property in the metropolis,� he said. The Street Naming and Property Address Project is being implemented with assistance from the World Bank, through the Ghana Land Administration Project phase II (LAP II). The implementation is based on the policy framework and operational guidelines issued by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.