Planners critical to devt — Minister
The Director-General of the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), Dr Kodjo Esseim Mensah-Abrampa, has urged the Ghana Institute of Planners (GIP) to produce quality services to address development challenges.
He said more than ever the input of the association was necessary and relevant due to the rise in population and the outbreak of pandemics across the world.
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“The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic brought to bear the infrastructural deficit in the country, and this is a call to us all to make our services known and available,” he said.
Dr Mensah-Abrampah was addressing the 50th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the GIP in Accra last Thursday.
The meeting was dubbed “Accelerating National Development Through Effective Infrastructure Planning”.
It was to set the tone for a national discourse on infrastructure policy, infrastructure planning and financing, as well as operation and maintenance.
Dr Mensah-Abrampah emphasised that the relevance of planning and planners had been brought to bear, and thus the opportune time for the work of planners to be promoted.
“This is the time to move by reality and intensify planning in the country,” he added.
He also observed that the 2021 Population and Housing Census indicated that the population of Ghana had increased and reliance on the already inadequate infrastructure had soared, and stressed that the efficient and effective use of the service of planners had become critical.
“The most important thing is the public should be supplied with their infrastructural needs,” he stated.
He also advised planners to execute their services to serve a full life cycle, ensuring that every infrastructure work went through the cycle of planning, financing, operation and maintenance.
Way forward
The National President of the GIP, Mr Mohammed Alhassan, encouraged planners to always adopt comprehensive plans while executing their services, saying
“infrastructure planning should be efficient, dependable, resilient, functional, accessible and inclusive in order to deal with issues of population growth, among others”.
He charged planners to continue to anticipate and shape the path of development in furtherance of the common purpose and desire to forge ahead the common good of the public.
“Infrastructure is a nominal foundation that accelerates socioeconomic development.
Therefore, infrastructural demand and delivery go hand in hand,” he added.
Induction
The Minister of Works and Housing, Mr Francis Asenso-Boakye, was inducted as a Fellow of the institute.
In a citation, the institute noted that the minister, as a professional planner, had over the years, exhibited diverse knowledge and expertise in the field of planning.
"As a public servant with diverse expertise and experience in the areas of development planning, public policy and administration, Mr Asenso-Boakye has excelled in his chosen career and brought dignity and respect to the noble profession of planning," the citation read.