The Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park (KNMP) has officially been opened to the public.
The park was closed for maintenance and final preparations before reopening to the public. The duration of the shutdown was from Friday, July 7, 2023, to noon on Tuesday, July 11, 2023. It is estimated that over GHC 30 million was spent on the renovation of this section.
Edward Quao, the interim director of Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, verified the news in a statement. The announcement welcomed the public back to the park with the following sentence, “We wish all visitors a pleasant and enriching experience.”
In 1957, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah proclaimed Ghana’s independence in the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, which is built on the site of the British colonial Polo Grounds in Accra. For the purpose of honoring Ghana’s first President and protecting the country’s history, the late Jerry John Rawlings got it built in 1990. In 1992, the park was finally opened to the public.
On Tuesday, July 4, 2023, President Akufo-Addo formally commissioned the park following renovations, clearing the way for the park’s highly anticipated reopening to the public.
At the ceremony, President Akufo-Addo stated, “It is gratifying to note that it has not only been renovated but has been completely modernising to befit the status of the final resting place of the man who led us to independence in 1957 and became Ghana’s first president, the celebrated Kwame Nkrumah.”
He went on to say, “It is in line to make the park one of the top tourist destinations in West Africa. As the outstanding pan-Africanist of this generation, the burial site of Dr. Nkrumah must be appropriate to a status in exceptional contribution to the liberation of Africa from colonialism and imperialism.”
