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The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Arts is to establish a paragliding school at Shai-Osudoku in the Greater Accra region.

This is to help whip up enthusiasm in paragliding among Ghanaians.

The sector Minister, Mrs. Catherine Abelema Afeku announced this at the 13th paragliding festival held at Atibie in the Kwahu South District in the Eastern Region.

The festival attracted 12 pilots from the United States of America, Japan, Romania, Ghana, Peru and Switzerland.

Mrs. Afeku urged aviation sports enthusiasts to take advantage of the school to enable them train as future pilots in paragliding which has over 400,000 pilots globally.

She was happy that the take-off area at Atibie has been expanded to accommodate more flights instead of one at a time.

Permanent canopies and wash rooms which hitherto were absent have been provided for the comfort of patrons.

She thanked the pilots for continually keeping faith with Ghana in an attempt to develop paragliding.

She paid tribute to all those who have helped to make the festival a permanent one as part of the Kwahu Easter festivities.

The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr. Eric Kwakye Dafour was grateful to the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Arts and the Ghana Tourism Authority for bringing the paragliding festival to the Kwahu area.

He was however not happy that there were only few Ghanaian pilots taking part in the festival.

The Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Tourism Authority (GTA), Mr. Akwasi Agyeman said the festival has given a new face and dimension to the celebration of Easter in Kwahu and witnessed an increased number of patrons over the years thus boosting domestic tourism in the area thereby creating jobs and improving the local economy.

He gave the assurance that the GTA would continue to develop and promote Ghana as a preferred destination with unique events and site attractions

Paragliding

The Ministry of Tourism introduced paragliding in Ghana in April 2005 during at Atibie.

It was organised to coincide with the Easter festivity that year on the Odweanoma Mountain. With the exception of 2009 the paragliding festival has been organised every year.