Alfred Vanderpuije, mayor of Accra, Ghana, sees widespread benefits to his city from a nonstop Delta Air Lines flight to Atlanta scheduled to start June 1. 

"It will promote opportunities for tourism," Mr. Vanderpuije told GlobalAtlanta during a recent visit here. "It will promote business. It will provide opportunities especially for Ghanaians [in Atlanta] who have family in Accra."

Mr. Vanderpuije, who went to college in the United States and worked here as a teacher and middle school principal,  has relatives in Atlanta, including cousins and a nephew.

The new Delta service to Accra will depart Atlanta three times weekly: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, said Delta spokesman Kent Landers. On other days, Delta customers can fly to Accra through New York's John F. Kennedy Airport, which has departing flights each day except Tuesday and Saturday, Mr. Landers added.

The Delta service will be launched as Accra, Ghana's capital, gains an increasing amount of attention on the world stage. President Obama visited Accra last year, his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa as president.

Ghana, a former British colony, is considered one of the most stable democracies in Africa.  

In January, Accra was named a "Millennium City" by Columbia University's Earth Institute, which has pledged to help the city of 4.5 million people improve traffic, water quality, sanitation, waste management and education.

"The goal of the Earth Institute is to make Accra the crown jewel of cities in Africa," the mayor said.

While in the United States this month, Mr. Vanderpuije met with leaders of the Earth Institute as well as with Atlanta's new mayor, Kasim Reed.

One of the most difficult challenges for Mr. Vanderpuije has been providing services for the constant influx of citizens migrating to Accra from the countryside. 

"As the capital city of Ghana, people want to come to Accra, for better education, for better living standards," said the mayor. "You can't blame them. But it puts a lot of strain on the budget of the city."

Accra has launched a number of initiatives to better cope with a growing population, including a waste-to-energy project that will generate electricity from the city's garbage.

Mr. Vanderpuije also wants to crack down on the thousands of squatters who have built shanties on public right of way.

"Government does not owe them a relocation, because they have built illegally, they have built in illegal places," said the mayor. At the same time, Accra is committed to upgrading the slums with better housing, he said.

Another of the city's major problems is a shortage of school buildings, which has forced educators at many schools to split the day into two four-hour shifts. Nearly half of the city's students only attend one shift, and even then classes can have as many as 70 students, the mayor said.

"Over the last 15 or 20 years, so many students have fallen through the cracks," said Mr. Vanderpuije. "They don't have a basic education. They have not acquired the basic skills to be productive citizens."

He has launched a program to raise $4.5 million to build and renovate classrooms.

"If we say we love all our children, then we need to rally around them and provide education for them," he said.