The Central Regional Minister, Mr E.K.T Addo, has called on metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives (MMDCEs) in the region to devise ways of utilising the available resources in their respective areas to alleviate poverty in the region.
He noted that data available indicated that the region was one of the poorest in the country, stressing that, the districts along the savannah and the coastal belt especially were living in abject poverty.
According to him, MMDCEs are expected to play pivotal roles in liberating their people from social and economic hardships in the country.
“We must empower the people economically so that they can make significant contributions towards the development of all districts in the region,’’ he noted.
Mr Addo was speaking at the opening ceremony of a two-day conference for all MMDCEs at Agona Swedru in the Central Region on the theme “Enhancing the development of the Central Region — The critical role of the MMDCE”.
He indicated that it was the responsibility of MMDCEs, under the decentralised system of governance in which the ordinary people must be involved, to work towards alleviating the plight of the people, saying that “governance at the local level is tailored towards enhancing the livelihoods of the people”.
The regional minister said local economic development (LED) was one of the ways people in the region could adopt to support the development of all districts.
He mentioned that districts such as Ekumfi, Gomoa and Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese had large hectares of land that could be used to plant trees for charcoal production as a means of reducing poverty in such districts.
He suggested to the MMDCEs to take the economic empowerment of their people seriously, since that would help improve revenue generation in their respective districts.
He explained that the Central Regional Development Commission (CEDECOM) would, henceforth, refocus on poverty reduction in the region, adding that the commission would be positioned to mobilise resources in terms of human capital to empower the people economically.
Street naming exercise
He bemoaned the slow pace of the street naming and property addressing exercise in the region, stressing that there was a deadline to the completion of the exercise and they must, therefore, ensure that the project was completed ahead of schedule.
He indicated that since the exercise was a major initiative of President John Dramani Mahama, the MMDCEs must ensure that it was well executed.
Dean of the MMDCEs
The Dean of the MMDCEs in the region, Mr Samuel Oppong, in a welcome address, said as representatives of the central government in the various districts, they were expected to spearhead the execution of plans, programmes and strategies for the effective mobilisation of resources for the overall development of the districts.
He stated that the conference was to develop a common strategy to enhance the development of the region, and added that at the end of the conference, a compendium of common and best practices would be developed to guide efforts towards serving and developing all the districts in the region.
