11 Ghanaians To Fly Solo at Paragliding Festivals

The Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture (MoTAC), Mrs Catherine Afeku, has announced the readiness of eleven local pilots who may be flying solo during this year’s Kwahu Paragliding festival.

According to her, the ministry had observed that a lot of fiscal resources were put into the organisation of the festival―taking undue toll on the national budget.

This, she said, gave the ministry the needed push to set up the Ghana Paragliding School to train local pilots.

“I am happy to report that the training of Ghanaians―11of them so far, who will initially fly as Solo Pilots, has begun,” she revealed.

She made this statement when she met with the media at the Meet-the-Press series held in Accra on Monday.

Mrs Afeku said, “Apart from heightening interest among the local population, the eventual deployment of indigenous Tandem Pilots will reduce expenditure as the major cost in organising the paragliding event has been the engagement of foreign pilots.”

The minister further revealed that preliminary works on for the paragliding school to train more Ghanaians was in the offing.

Paragliding No Longer Once A Year

“The use of local tandem pilots can also increase the frequency of organising the event. It would not only be for Easter,” the sector minister revealed.

In turn, the ministry hopes to garner more revenue from this initiative and to make the site more attractive to tourists and locals as well.

According to the minister, the Odweanoma Mountain site in Kwahu-Atibie, which is usually the site for the festival, is currently under construction and would be re-opened to the public in March, in time for this year’s paragliding.

The renovation exercise is to expand the take-off point to allow about four pilots fly at the same time. Hitherto, only one pilot could fly at a time.

The minister therefore made a solemn call on captains of industry, heads of institutions and the business community, both Ghanaians and non-Ghanaians, to adopt this form of adventure and leisure in order to rake in more revenue into the tourism sector.

Kwahu Paragliding Festival

The month of April witnesses the Kwahu paragliding event organised by Ghana Tourism Authority, one of the agencies under the MoTAC.

The 13th edition of the event, which is on the theme: ‘You Too Can Fly’, is scheduled to take place at the Odweanoma Mountains from March 30 through to April 2, 2018.

By: Grace Ablewor Sogbey/ [email protected]