AMA Assigns Names To 4,286 Streets

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) has, so far, assigned names to 4,286 streets in the metropolis under the street-naming and property-addressing project. Additionally, 7,477 properties, including houses, have been numbered and given various addresses. The Chief Executive Officer of AMA, Mr Alfred Okoe Vanderpuije, who announced this at a stakeholders� forum on the street-addressing system in Accra, said the assembly had scaled up its efforts to ensure that all streets were named. Background of the project During the launch of the National Urban Policy Framework and Action Plan in March 2013, President John Dramani Mahama directed the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development to ensure that streets were named within 18 months. In November 2013, the President gave an ultimatum to metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) to complete the street-naming and house-numbering exercises in their respective areas or lose their jobs by September 2014. The implementation of the exercise is guided by the national street-naming and property-addressing policy and the national operational guidelines on street-naming and property-addressing system. AMA determined Mr Vanderpuije said the assembly had completed piloted signages in five communities for residents to identify the street names provided and also seek redress if they had any issues with the names. The communities he mentioned were James Town, Korle Dudor, Ministries area, Makola and South Industrial Area. According to him, 22 communities, two per sub-metro, were consulted during the naming exercise to seek their views on the names to be given to the streets. �We have involved the chiefs, business communities, traders, home owners and all interested parties so that we, as AMA, will not generate the names but the names will come from within the communities,� he said. Mr Vanderpuije said once the project was completed, residential address identification in the metropolis would be easier. The Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Nii Osah Mills, commended AMA for the effort to transform Accra into a millennium city.