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The 2024 Manifesto Committee of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has Dr Edward Ackah-Nyamike Jnr, the President of the Ghana Hotels Association (GHA) serving as a committee member on Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts.

His appointment to serve on the Manifesto Committee has been greeted by a lot of speculations about his affiliation with the ruling party.

Setting the records straight, Dr Ackah-Nyamike stated emphatically that he had never been a member and is currently not a member of the New Patriotic Party but his appointment to serve on the committee was strictly professional to tap into his experience in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry.

“I see this as a unique opportunity to feed the Manifesto directly with issues very dear to the heart of the Tourism and Hospitality Industry for redress. Being apolitical, if NDC had approached me with a similar role, I may have ceased the opportunity; but NPP approached first, which is why you see my name on the list”, he stated.

Explaining how he got the appointment, Dr Ackah-Nyamike said a leading member of the New Patriotic Party who also happened to be a family friend informed him about the formation of the 2024 NPP Manifesto Committee.

He added he was asked to serve on the Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts Committee which he willingly accepted to serve on the committee after consultations with industry players and some executives of his association, given his leadership role and experience in the tourism and hospitality industry over the past two decades.

“After a few days of pondering over it and consulting a couple of industry players and executives of the Ghana Hotels Association, I informed him that I was ready to serve in that capacity for God and country"

…he was happy about my response and he promised to get back to me after further discussions with the bigger team. The next discussion about the topic was when the full list of members on the Manifesto Committee was released a couple of days ago and I started receiving calls about it”, he narrated.

Commenting on the effect of the appointment over the Ghana Hotels Association, Dr Ackah-Nyamike said it will offer him the opportunity to move the operations of the Association from advocacy to insert their issues and challenges right into the Manifesto of a major political party with the chance to run the next government.

He added that his appointment has created the platform to move the Association from sitting on the fence for governments to come to power before addressing the concerns of the tourism and hospitality industry.

“Over the years we sit on the fence for governments to come to power and then we play our advocacy role to get our aspirations met. This time we have the opportunity to insert our issues and challenges right into the Manifesto of a major political party which has a good chance of running the next government.

This is certainly a positive effect of this appointment. On the negative side, some suggest that I will be mute on advancing Association matters in the media landscape and other quarters as I have become known for between now and elections because of my appointment on the Manifesto Committee”, he mentioned.

He, however, assured his members and the general public that he will continue to serve the Association with integrity, dedication, courage and diligence as he has done over the past 6 years as President of the Ghana Hotels Association.

Even though Dr Ackah-Nyamike did not mention some of the things he would contribute to support the 2024 NPP Manifesto on Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, he had always maintained the need for governments in power to address levies, taxes and other charges affecting the operations of the hospitality industry.

He had called for transparency and accountability in the disbursement of the Tourism Development Fund as well as getting the funds to support tourism trade associations with annual allocations.

Dr Ackah-Nyamike had again in the past implored governments to construct roads leading to tourist sites in the country, pursue the E-Visa agenda and come up with the National Tourism Policy to boost the tourism economy.