Ho West Assembly benefits from development project
The Ho-West District Assembly has been listed to benefit from a $19.1 million Integrated Rural Development Project (IPRDP) earmarked for 20 district assemblies in the country.
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The four-year project, which will be funded by the Arab Bank for Development in Africa, is to promote integrated rural development by increasing household incomes through enhanced farming, marketing and distribution chains.
It is also expected to increase the output of small scale agricultural producers through the provision of inputs, credit, technology and access to social service, among others.
The Ho-West District Chief Executive, Mr Samuel Ewoade, announced this at the third ordinary meeting of the third session of the assembly held at Dzolokpuita last Monday.
He said the assembly had already signed a Memorandum of Agreement(MoA) with the Social Investment Fund (SIF) of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development on cost sharing for the various components of the project.
Mr Ewoade further disclosed that a Spanish water project was to take off in the district to enhance access to potable water in some communities. The communities are Soyakodzi, Dededo, Abutia-Kloe, Abutia-Teti, Abutia-Agome, Dzolo-Gbogame, Hlefi, Kissiflui, Amedzofe and Saviefe.
On the composite budget for the 2014 fiscal year, he said the assembly had projected GH¢5,398,811 as revenue to be accrued from District Assembly Common Fund (DACF), District Development Facility(DDF), and Internally Generated Funds (IGF).
He said the projected IGF for 2014 far exceeded that of 2013 by 75.3 per cent because the district was poised to venture into other revenue generation activities such as property rates and expansion of operational areas backed by aggressive education to enhance revenue mobilisation.
The district chief executive said a total of GHc3,675,549.85 had been allocated as expenditure for infrastructural development in the district next year.
Touching on the latest results of the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE) for the district, he said 55 junior high schools in the district scored 40.9 per cent with three schools scoring zero per cent adding that it was a better result than the previous year in which 10 schools scored zero per cent.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Ho-West Mr Emmanuel Bedzrah, commended the assembly members for the good performance so far, especially on the disbursement of the Disability Common Fund which many district assemblies had not been able to implement.
He stressed for more efforts on local revenue mobilisation to enable them to wean themselves off the central government and said they should add more value to the numerous yam festivals that had sprung up in the area and added that the festivals could be counted as economic tourism to rake in more money for the assembly.
Mr Bedzrah said electricity meters were available for all needy people in the communities to propel the national rural electrification project to a wider scale. He also announced the construction of two six-unit classroom blocks for Betikpo and Dzolokpuita.
Earlier in a welcome address, the presiding member of the assembly, Mr Matthew Atsrim, expressed the hope that the district assembly would become a model, if the proposal for environmental sanitation was fully implemented through the effort of the assembly members.
According to him, each assembly member was expected to adopt a basic education school and form an environmental protection club to champion public education for good sanitation practices in the communities.
Mr Astrim urged assembly members to explore more avenues for revenue generation in their areas to enable the young assembly to stand on its feet and also participate actively in consultations for the establishment of an Education and Sports Endowment Fund for the district.
By Tim Dzamboe/Daily Graphic/Ghana