By Prince Acquah
Cape Coast, Oct. 22, GNA – Nana Kwamena Takyi, a businessman and philanthropist, has been enstooled the new chief of Simiw, a 500-year-old community under the Edina Traditional Area in the Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem Municipality of the Central Region.
Now known as Nana Nguando IV, his new status makes him the Adontenhen of the Edina Traditional Area.
A colourful, graceful and well-attended coronation was held in the community before proceeding to the Anomansa Palace, seat of the Edinamanhen, Nana Kwodwo Conduah VI, where he swore an oath of allegiance before the Omanhen, after some traditional rituals had been performed.
With more than 20 years of experience in the development world, Nana Nguando pledged his unwavering resolve to lead a massive development of the community and expressed his readiness to cooperate with investors, government and other development partners.
He lamented the poor state of development in the community characterised largely by poor roads, lack of a hospital, inadequate school facilities and poor mobile network, which made life unbearable for the people.
“Our roads are in bad shape and so, many drivers avoid using the roads and in medical emergency situations, it is hard to even get a car to the hospital,” he said.
Nana Nguando said the community was endowed with vast tracts of lands which he was ready to release for the establishment of facilities such as schools and health centres.
He appealed to the government and other stakeholders for the amenities lacking in the area to bring relief to the people.
“As we call on government to fix our roads and improve our network, we also need a hospital for the community,” he said.
“This is an agrarian community. If you are an investor and you need lands to open a business, come to us; we are ready to support you,” he added.
The new chief promised to be a unifier who would serve with humility to bring the much-needed development and called for the support of the entire community.
Nana Conduah for his part, emphasised the need for Nana Nguando to humble himself and learn from the chiefs he had come to meet.
He advised him to make education his priority to ensure more children were educated in the community and urged him to make efforts to woo investors to develop the lands in his community.
Prof Samuel Ato Duncan, the President General and Chief Executive Officer of the Centre of Awareness Research and Manufacturing Limited Company, praised Nana Nguando for his humility and pledged to support him to succeed.
He requested for a 1,000 acre of land to cultivate medicinal plants for his new project, the Green Gold Project, which was meant to advance plant medicine.
In return, he promised to build for the community a school and a hospital and support them with other development needs.
Nana Nguando is the last of his father’s 34 children and the last of his mother’s four children.
He possesses two degrees in law and social science and with his interest in development, he owns and runs the Progressing Excellence Youth Organization which promotes education, health, water and sanitation, and good governance.
GNA