I will extend the sea to Kumasi if elected president – Nana Kwame Bediako

Ghanaian businessman and presidential aspirant Nana Kwame Bediako, popularly known as Cheddar, has promised to extend the sea to the Ashanti Region if elected president.

He said this would open up the eastern and western sectors of the country to facilitate inland trade.

Speaking in an interview on a Kumasi-based radio station, the leader of the New Force Movement said he has seen other countries, such as the United Arab Emirates, extend the reach of their water bodies to facilitate development.

“I have travelled far and wide. I have seen many countries do that. Even Dubai, which was a typical desert, now has a sea. That is the kind of vision I have for the Ashanti Region. When we dredge the sea into the region, ships can dock in Kumasi,” he said.

He bemoaned the carting of individual cargo containers by road when the sea could be a faster and more efficient means of importing and exporting goods in the landlocked region.

“We are in the year 2024. This is not a time when people should be driving containers one by one from the Tema Harbour to Kumasi over a six-hour journey by road. By the time one container gets here, half of its content is either broken or gone bad. If you had the rails or sea, you could transport about 500 containers within an hour. You can also ship out 500 containers in the same fashion,” Nana Kwame Bediako added.

The presidential aspirant is currently in the Ashanti Region for a five-day visit as part of his nationwide tour dubbed the ‘Listening Tour’.

The purpose of the tour is to allow him to listen to the visions, aspirations, and desires of the ordinary Ghanaian to inform his manifesto for the 2024 election.