Accra, Aug. 1, GNA - Accra Zoo would be relocated by the end of next month to make way for the construction of the Presidential Complex, Professor Dominic Fobih, Minister of Lands, Forestry and Mines, said on Tuesday.

In the interim, arrangements have been made to transport the animals to the Kumasi Zoo until a new modern Zoo is constructed at the Achimota Forest in Accra.

Prof Fobih announced this to newsmen, school children and officials of the Zoo when he visited the new site for the Zoo. He said the relocation exercise would cost 1.2 billion cedis, whereas the new Zoo would be constructed at seven million dollars. According to the Minister, the Zoo, which served as a private one for Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah at the Flagstaff House in the 1960s, had eventually become a public one that needed adequate resources to develop to serve its intended purpose.

He stated that the Ministry had contacted the Zoological Society of London to work with Ghana's Wild Life Division to develop the project, adding that a representative from the International Zoo Programme of the Society had already visited Ghana and was now finalizing the lay out of the facilities of the zoo.

Prof Fobih said the project would be completed in phases within five years.

Togbi Kporku III, Chairman of the Accra Zoo Board, said the Zoo remained one of the most patronised tourist sites in the country, attracting about 120,000 visitors annually.

He said there was, therefore, the need to build a bigger zoo that would attract more animal lovers and friends of the environment to patronize it and generate more revenue.