The acting Chief Executive Director at the Ghana Museums and Monuments, Kingsley Ntiamoah Ofosu, has disclosed that some vehicles used by Ghana’s first president as well as other former state officials will soon be available for rental as part of measures to generate revenue for the institution.
Mr Ntiamoah Ofosu noted that some presidential vehicles belonging to the late Dr Kwame Nkrumah (Cadillac), the late Jerry John Rawlings as well as John Agyekum Kufuor have been renovated and they intend to rent them out.
He explained that the proceeds made from renting out the cars that were once used by these great men will be channelled into the repairs of the over 20 broken-down vehicles of other former heads of state and ministers which have been ‘abandoned’.
Officials of the Ghana Museums and Monuments wish to put these luxury vehicles to “great use.”
“We want to use these vehicles, the Benz, Land cruisers, now it is motorable so we want to rent them. We are going to use the proceeds from these vehicles to work on other vehicles. We have over twenty vehicles here which were used by Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Busia, Afrifa, Acheampong and all those people. The vehicles are here, we have Rolls-Royce, Mercedes Benz and other vehicles that we want to work on them.”
“Working on these vehicles is very expensive. Most of them are bulletproof vehicles. If I tell you how much it cost us to be able to work on these Mercedes Benz and other ones, it will shock you. They are very expensive and capital intensive. We want to rent them so we will use the proceeds to work on other vehicles as well,” the acting Chief Executive Director explained on HitzFM.
He however assured that the special vehicles which haven’t been moved for years will be handled with care when finally made available for rental adding that police escort will be provided in all instances.
“There are going to rules and regulations not that anybody just come and we rent you the car, no. We are in talks with the police. What we are trying to do is that when you come and rent, we’ll give you a police escort and a driver…we are going to make sure that we put them into great use.”