The GUMA Group, an investment company in South Africa has signed a partnership agreement with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture to help in the development of Ghana's tourism sector.

In tandem with this, the Ghana Tourism development Company, the investment and infrastructural development wing of the Ministry has worked with the GUMA Group to produce a roadmap for partnership and investments in selected tourism enterprises.

The Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture seeks among other things to drive and grow private sector investments into the tourism, arts and hospitality industry with the aim of improving the performance of tourism in targeted destinations in Ghana, with the objective of creating jobs along the tourism value chain, generate income for the players, reduce poverty and generally make the country an attractive tourism destination.

The partnership will ensure the effective and efficient development of the tourism sector in Ghana by designing, building, and rehabilitating places of interest, cultural and historical places of interest, wildlife conservation and establishment of commercial wildlife parks, heavy capital tourism iconic projects and other associated infrastructure, as set out in its Tourism Development Plans

Within twenty-four (24) to sixty (60) months, the following projects will be undertaken:

i. SHAI HILLS RESOURCE RESERVE – Upgrade the current tented camp into a luxury facility with rooms, a restaurant and develop a Cultural Village like the Lesedi concept in South Africa.

ii. KAKUM NATIONAL PARK – Develop an Eco-lodge to provide tourists with overnight accommodation at two identified sites (Mfuom and Antwikwao) plus tree top houses, mobile tented camps, and picnic sites. In addition, GUAM will establish a restaurant offering meals to visitors from breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

iii. MOLE NATIONAL PARK – Develop 2 of the new sites to provide accommodation and restaurant services, and possibly consider other product opportunities associated with the chosen sites. In addition, GUMA will also open and operate the second gate at Ducie Camp.

iv. The Investor is interested in establishing operating a lounge at the airport and duty-free outlets within the City to run Diplomatic Duty-Free stores.

v. That the Investor undertakes, together with other concessionaires and the Department of Forestry, to rehabilitate and operate the landing airfields for light aircraft adjacent to the National Parks/Reserves and the improvement of artery roads connecting these tourism products and nodes.

vi. Destination retail in crafts, curios and souvenir - the Investor intends to establish retail outlets at various tourists’ destination sites, the products to be sold in these outlets shall be mostly sourced from the local Ghanaian suppliers.

vii. Supply of Human Resource Capital Training including change management (management and technical).

This partnership comes on the back of the 2023 Ghana Tourism Summit which was held at the Labadi Beach Hotel in Accra on Tuesday, December 5, 2023.

In his address, the Chairman of the GUMA Group, Robert Gumede, outlined the company’s plans for the partnership.

"We are here to hold hands with you. We will hit the ground running, we will invest our hard-earned monies, we do not want money from you. We will invest our money. We will work with you in some of your facilities that we can convert, modernise, make the relevant and we will work with you to bring tourists into the country.

Most importantly, we are going to develop a mini Suncity here in Ghana. That is our commitment," he noted.

There were panel discussions regarding investment in the industry.

Also present at the Summit were the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori Attah; the Chief Executive Officer of the McDan Group of Companies, Daniel McKorley and Ibrahim Mohammed Awal, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture.

Others were Akwasi Agyemang, the Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Tourism Authority, and Kojo Antwi, the Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Tourism Development Company.