The Asuogyaman District Assembly in the Eastern Region is considering discontinuing the current practice of charging patrons who take pictures on the Adomi Bridge as a means of raising revenue for the district.
The decision hinges on the poor revenue generation at the site since the introduction of the policy three years ago.
The local Assembly and the Ghana Highway Authority (GHA) which manages the property took the decision in 2019 to commercialise picture taking by individuals on the bridge.
The Adomi Bridge was in 2019 classified as a tourist site, requiring a fee payment for taking any photo on the 334m bridge with fees charged being part of efforts to defray the cost of 12.9m Euro incurred on repair works on the bridge.
This was after it was closed to traffic on 10 March 2014 and re-opened in December 2015.
Patrons who wish to take shots at the facility are required to pay GHc 4 per person but unfortunately, low revenue recorded over the years has raised concerns over the sustainability of the move.
District Chief Executive for Asuogyman, Samuel Kwame Agyekum told GhanaWeb that the targeted revenue from commercialising picture taking on the bridge could not be met hence the decision to discontinue the act of picture taking as a source of revenue mobilisation.
“We wanted to take advantage of the bridge to make some revenue and shore up our internally generated fund (IGF) but the revenue that we’re generating is not encouraging at all so the assembly is considering stopping this collection because we’re not making that much and the cost of collecting is even more than the amount we generate,” he said.
With less than GHC200 of revenue raised per week, the Assembly Chief said the cost incurred in raising the revenue exceeds the revenue raised.
He said, “I just called my finance people and asked them how much they’re making and he’s just telling me not more than GHC200 a week and I don’t see why we should pay workers to sit here and the amount we use to pay them at the end of the month is even more than what we’re collecting.”
Reasons for the low revenue, as explained by the DCE, were perceptions by the general public that the facility is a public property that must not warrant any fees charged before taking pictures.
Mr. Agyekum said, “They think that the bridge is a public property, it belongs to all Ghanaians so if they’re coming to take pictures and have a view of it, they don’t see why they should pay.”
He furthered that the situation hasn’t improved despite sustained efforts to enlighten the public on the need to patronize and pay for the shots as a means of supporting the District Assembly to shore up its IGF.
To optimise revenue from the bridge nevertheless, Mr. Agyekum explained that other innovative means have been adopted to help use the Adomi Bridge to raise revenue.
One of these is the Adomi International Festival introduced two years ago, aimed at attracting people into the district and thereby raising revenue for the assembly.
He however added that other means of using the bridge to raise revenue were being considered.
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