Management of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Animal Research Institute has moved to give 12 acres of its lands to the government for the construction of a district hospital under the Agenda 111 program.
This comes after the Greater Accra Regional Security Council demolished several unauthorized structures built on about 200-acre land belonging to the Institute.
Director of the CSIR Animal Research Institute, Dr. Ebenezer Ansah told Citi News, the plan is to safeguard the reclaimed land against further encroachment.
“We are going to enter into public-private partnerships with some entities and then extend our activities. I believe this is the only way to stop the encroachment. Senior management of CSIR has agreed to support the program of the President to provide healthcare to the populace so, in this regard, we have decided to give 12 acres to the Agenda 111 project so that hospitals can be built. We know some laboratories will be constructed, and it will be beneficial to animal research”, he disclosed.
The Animal Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research was set up with the mandate to inspire efficiency and entrepreneurship in the Ghanaian livestock industry through technology development and innovative interventions for food security and wealth creation.
But the Institute for the past seven years has been battling with the increasing level of encroachment of about 800 acres of its over 1,000-acre lands.
It took the government’s assistance to ward off the activities of land guards on its lands.
Chairman of the Greater Accra REGSEC, Henry Quartey, who led a demolition exercise on the land, urged other encroachers on the remaining 800-acre lands of the CSIR to regularize their documents claiming ownership of the property.
“After this exercise, the landlords’ association outside the perimeter should meet quickly and REGSEC will make recommendations to the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, onward to the seat of government, for those properties to be considered and eventually leading to regularization.”