Revamp PANAFEST to attract diasporans

Executive Secretary of the Pan-African Historical Theatre Festival (PANAFEST) Foundation, Rabbi Kohain Halevi, has appealed to the government to revamp the PANAFEST Foundation to attract more tourists and investors from the Diaspora.

He said the government had good plans for the establishment of the Foundation 21 years ago and that it should not abandon this vibrant venture since it has potentials for the development of Africa in general and Ghana in particular.

Rabbi Kohain said this on Sunday at the ground breaking ceremony for the construction of a $250,000 Community Education Centre at SABAYET, a settler fishing community near Dutch Komenda in the Komenda- Edina –Eguafo-Abrem District.

The library complex, which is being constructed in honour of Herret C.Parker/ Goodwin, African Americans who visited the community in 1998, would take about a year and half to complete.

It will comprise an internet café, lecture hall and an information centre and would be stocked with books on African culture and economics.

He said if the Foundation is well resourced and its activities well coordinated it would be able to attract many more businessmen and investors with the requisite expertise from the Diaspora who are more than willing to invest in their motherland.

Rabbi Kohain appealed to the Ministry of Tourism to do everything in its power to use PANAFEST to pull Africans together for the development of the continent.

Mr Arthur Penny, a development Chief of SABAYET and coordinator of the project, said it was their aim to help educate the people of SABAYET as their contribution towards the development and growth of the small fishing community which is underdeveloped.

He said apart from the construction of the Community Education Centre, they were also building a community clinic and that plans were far advanced to establish a business centre which is aimed at training the community members to go into other businesses apart from fishing.

Mr Penny also Known as Nana Kofi Penny said it was time for Africans in the Diaspora to come back home to invest and share their expertise and knowledge with the people of their origin.

Nana Munokum III, chief of the area, thanked Nana Kofi Penny and the Herret Parker/Goodwin family for the projects which he said would enhance the development of the area.

He said the people of SABAYET would support the project to ensure its early completion.