Assemblies should focus more effort on job creation – Dauda
Local Government and Rural Development Minister, Alhaji Collins Dauda, is urging Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to make job creation an urgent priority.
He noted that unemployment had become a critical issue confronting the nation and for that matter it was pertinent for the assemblies to do more to assist deal with the problem.
People would need to work to earn money to pay for the electricity, water and other social amenities extended to their communities.
The Minister, who was addressing the second annual local government conference in Kumasi, asked the MMDAs to up their game to make things better for the people by collaborating with the private sector to efficiently harness the economic potentials in areas under their jurisdiction, in order to create employment opportunities.
“Dynamics of local economic development, sanitation and innovative public services”, was the theme for the meeting attended by officials of the assemblies, the local Government Service, Institute of Local Government Studies and academia.
Alhaji Dauda expressed dissatisfaction with the inability of many of the assemblies to develop their enormous resources to improve their finances for accelerated development.
He discouraged their over-reliance on central government’s funding for development and asked that they take advantage of Public Private Partnership (PPP) to generate revenue for implementation of their development agenda.
He highlighted the four priority areas of his ministry – deepening the decentralization process, rural development, urban development and environmental sanitation – and said it was going to all lengths to ensure good governance and balanced development to reduce poverty and promote economic growth.
Mr. John Alexander Ackon, the Ashanti Regional Minister, reminded the assemblies to create business-friendly environment for micro, small and medium enterprises to thrive.
Source: GNA