Kumasi City Mall project chalks one million accident free hours

The main contractor working on the Kumasi City Mall project, WBHO, has celebrated one million man hours of work without any lost time injury.

A ceremony was held on the construction site at Asokwa, in Kumasi, to celebrate the achievement, considered in the construction industry as outstanding, especially in projects of its stature and magnitude.

The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, on June 7, 2014, cut the sod for commencement of works on the multi-million dollar Kumasi City Mall (KCM), owned by Delico Kumasi Limited, an affiliate of Delico Achimota Limited and Delico Property Developments Limited, developer of the West Hills Mall in Accra.

MBA Consult, a Ghanaian Safety and Environment Consultancy, which has worked on all of Delico’s developments in the country and the Safe Environment Education Foundation (SEEF), an affiliated NGO committed to promoting safe and accident-free environments in workplaces, organised the KCM Safety Celebrations.

Infrastructure development

“Infrastructure development is critical to the progress of our country but too little attention is paid to what goes on at the sites – the serious issues of safety, health hazards and the environmental spin-offs of what takes place on these sites,” Mr Daniel Asah, the Lead Consultant of MBA Consult and President of SEEF, said at the function.

Mr Asah said it was important that such practical achievements were announced and celebrated to encourage other Ghanaian developers to adopt appropriate professional practices to keep the work environment at major construction sites progressively safe. 

“By being so stringent on health and safety, not only do we safeguard the lives and well-being of the workers, we also save precious time and money and ensure that production schedules are not unduly destabilised,” he said.

About 500 men and women work at the site every day and up to 14 Ghanaian sub-contractors are engaged in the provision of special services on the mall project which is scheduled to be ready for use by the people of Kumasi in March, next year.

Commendation

On behalf of Mr Isaac Kyei-Mensah, the Chairman of the occasion who could not attend the function, Mr George Duke Blankson of Delico Kumasi Limited, congratulated the workers, sub-contractors and the professional team for the consistency in their commitment to operating within a functionally safe and secured work environment. 

“For a project of this magnitude and importance, one million man hours of operations without lost time injury certainly deserves to be celebrated memorably. You did it at West Hills Mall, you recently did same on the Achimota Retail Centre project and now you have recorded another feat here in the Ashanti capital.”

“The credit for this achievement is shared equally among every single individual working on this project, from the engineer down to security man on site and I am very sure that the Board will be proud of you. Ayekoo!” Mr Blankson told the workers.

Plaques, trophies and special citations were presented to deserving workers for their distinguished commitment to the maintenance of safety on site.

Background

The KCM project started with bulk earthworks in October, 2014 but construction works began in earnest on March 2, 2015 by WBHO, a civil engineering firm with footprints in Ghana’s mining sector, roads and earthworks and civil infrastructure development.