Northern Ghana gets 44.4 million Canadian dollars for medium term development

District Assemblies in the three Northern Regions had received a total of 44, 459,401.31 Canadian Dollar support to implement the medium term development plans and annual action plans.

The support, which formed part of the District Wide Assistance Project (DWAP), was to support the budgets of District Assemblies and Regional Coordinating Councils.

Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, Minister of Local Government and Rural Development (MLGRD), stated at the Meet-the-Press series in Accra on Thursday, explaining that 917 sub-projects namely, boreholes, feeder roads, classroom blocks, health facilities and markets, among others, had been constructed and rehabilitated under the project.

He said under the DWAP programme, Districts have been assisted to improve physical access to social infrastructure by annually implementing an average of 100 sub-projects, which was approximately three sub-projects per districts.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo announced that the governments of Ghana and Canada had also signed a 14.3 million Canadian dollar contribution agreement to fund Food Security and Environment Facility (FSEF) in the three northern Regions through private, sub-project implementing Partner organizations.

He said the project, which was expected to end in May 2016, was to introduce sustainable environmental and gender sensitive innovations in agricultural production.

“The facility enabled Busa and Sing communities in the Wa Municipality to harvest about one tone of tilapia under the Community Based Cage Fish Culture sub-project.”

He said selected members of the beneficiary communities are now equipped with skills to locally construct the cage.

“The ‘Zai’ method has also been introduced to improve the yields of maize and millet in Builsa, East Gonja, East Mamprusi and Garu-Tempani District Assemblies under the Sustainable Farming Techniques sub-project.

The Minister said other interventions under the FSEF included 10 improved onion storage facilities constructed under the Onion Farmers livelihood and Value Chain Improvement sub-project and those facilities were about 95 per cent complete and would benefit 700 farmers in Saaka, Naagbere and sapeliga communities in Bawku West.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said the FSEF project had also introduced improved feed supplements and housing for small ruminants in Wa West District.

He said the MLGRD, through the Local Enterprises and Skills development Project (LESDEP), had provided 30,993 out of the 40,000 targeted beneficiaries for the year with skills training in vocation and entrepreneurship.

The trainees, he said, had also been provided with set-up equipment to start their own businesses in various trades.

“The monitoring and evaluation undertaken by LESDEP, shows that, the businesses of beneficiaries are doing well. The programme has also intensified its post by setting up advisory services to ensure sustenance and proper management of individuals’ businesses,” he said.

He said the programme gave much attention to people with disabilities by providing them with skills training and start-up equipment by working in collaboration with the Centre for Employment for People with disability.

He said there had been an expansion of the state-of-the-art assembly plant where all of LESDEP’s three-wheel vehicles were assembled and there had also been the introduction of a new line of assembling four-wheel under the programme.

Mr Ofosu-Ampofo also touched on the Ghana Social opportunities Project (GSOP), which was being implemented in 40 districts from October 2010.

He said GSOP was fashioned out with the World Bank to improve targeting in social protection spending; increase access to conditional cash transfers nationwide; increase access to employment and cash-earning opportunities for the rural poor during the agricultural off-season, and improve economic infrastructure in target districts.

“In order to improve living conditions of the poor in the beneficiary Districts, 36 of the sub-projects had been completed under various sectors…

He said work is progressing steadily to complete 145 sub-projects made up of 23 social infrastructures, 35 feeder roads with a total length of 114.2 km and 83 climate change interventions.

He pledged the Ministry’s commitment to continue the implementation of its Sector medium Term Development Plan and Decentralization Policy Framework and Action.

Source: GNA