... Without pomp and pageantry .... As Chief goes for solar

The controversy that surrounded the purchase of Hotel Kufuor might have informed operators of the multi billion facility, situated at HIPC Junction in the Airport residential area, to open the hotel for business without the usual pomp and splendour that go with such events.

The hotel, christened African Regency Hotel, which brought a political slugfest between the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the Opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), has finally opened for business without much publicity.

This paper can confirm that though the hotel may not be popular in the country, it is already famous among clients from the US and UK. This confirmation came about during some interactions this reporter had with some customers of the hotel, who were mainly from these two countries.

A brief visit to hotel, which is located just about five minutes drive from Kotoka International Airport, showed that edifice is furnished with the state of the art modern facilities.

Living up to its name African Regency Hotel, the hotel is decorated with African arts with the rooms furnished with the best facilities found any where in the world.

Though the hotel is not yet rated, the facilities and services it provides currently can match the known five star hotels in the country, notably Labadi Beach Hotel or Lapalm Beach Hotel.

Surprisingly, in spite of the high quality facilities and services the hotel provides it clients; its charges are very moderate with a room earmarked for a family of about three persons charge about $75 a night.

According to some visitors to the hotel who were interviewed during our verification visit over the weekend, they admire the hotel due the location, security and the attitudes towards the environment. Currently, the African Regency Hotel is the only hotel in the country which has fully installed solar energy as it main source of power.

The hotel is locally called “Hotel Kufuor” due to the alleged involvement of the first family in its purchase with the suspicion that President John Agyekum Kufuor was the real owner of the hotel and that he was using his eldest son, Chief Kufuor, to front for him.

However, a preliminary investigation by the independent anti-corruption agency, Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), exonerated the President from the transaction.

One unique feature of the Hotel is the foresight they had in powering the facility with solar energy even when the energy crises had not started.

Because at a time when the nation’s energy experts in the country are grappling with finding an alternative source of power for the country, the first family in about three years ago had anticipated the problem and funded a long term cheap source of energy for the hotel.

Many Ghanaians had thought that the hotel would be opened during the African Union Summit slated for Ghana this June, but a source close to the first family informed this paper that, the first family do not want to get involved in public debate about the timing, hence the early opening even when the hotel is not hundred per cent completed.

Just as all the residents along the president’s home, the hotel also enjoys high security presence just as the president’s bungalow which is about ten metres away