City News

Mayor Jason Lary announced his intent to form a sister city relationship with the Honorable Michael Mensah, Mayor of Kasoa, Ghana. Stonecrest, located 12 miles east of Atlanta, has a population of 54,400. Kasoa has a population of 250,000 and is a metropolitan city 15 miles from the Capital City of Accra. Mayor Lary and Kasoa’s Mayor Michael Mensah plan to extend a formal introduction of the Sister City Relationship with a Memorandum of Understanding through a virtual broadcast on Zoom™. The event will be August 19th at 11:30 A.M. EST <https://bit.ly/zoomStonecrestKasoa>

The twinning of the two cities is unique and it continues the focus of developing international relationships between cities across the Atlantic Ocean. Stonecrest has Sister City Relationships with the Capital City of Georgetown, New Amsterdam, and Linden, Guyana.

The extended relationship can be credited to the Nana Obokese Ampah I, a chief of the Asebu Kingdom of Ghana and the Founder of Obokese University of Excellence. WARRIngton Consulting is also a pivotal to link to Pan-African relations. Mayor Lary states that the driving force for developing this relationship started organically from the Ghanaian diaspora.

“Our city’s story is intriguing because we have only been in existence for three years, yet we are the largest majority African American city to be created since slavery in the United States! We are 96 percent African American and we are not a stagnant city. We are robust, innovative, agile, and as a result businesses and corporations are attracted to our area.” The mayor said that Stonecrest has generated approximately $1 billion dollars in public and private investments through retail, industrial, commercial and residential real estate developments.

“The overall goal will be to promote common prosperity and development where both cities share best practices in excellence in categories such as art, business and commerce, culture, education, governmental administration,” Mayor Lary said. “No other country has formally rolled out the red carpet than the country of Ghana with the Year of the Return. I envision a day where we will transform ideas into progressive action. A day where our citizens will make a trip to the Door of No Return that many of our ancestors walked through hundreds of years ago and Kasoa delegation will visit Stonecrest.” Both Mayors agree that this is a mutually beneficial relationship.