THE Afigya-Kwabre District Assembly is evolving strategies to generate ideas and resources to complement funds from central government to accelerate the development of the area.
As a first move, the district is inviting suggestions from all its citizens living in and outside the area on how to organise a successful home-coming summit to brainstorm on the way forward for the district.
The home-coming summit is expected to take place in the district in December, this year.
The District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Oppong Kyekyeku Kaakyire, who briefed the Daily Graphic in Accra about steps to develop the area, said the summit had become necessary because the district was carved out of two districts, namely Kwabre and Afigya Sekyere.
The DCE gave the briefing after he had paid a courtesy call on the General Manager of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), Mr Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, who is a citizen of the district.
Mr Kaakyire noted with concern that unfortunately only the deprived areas of the two districts were carved out to form the Afigya-Kwabre District.
The situation, he said had made things difficult for the new district assembly in raising funds to finance development projects.
Mr Kaakyire said currently, the district assembly was housed in a filling station while other departments were far away from the district headquarters, which were also in rented premises.
“This means that the chunk of the initial resources that the central government would give to the district must go into construction of offices for the assembly”, he noted with concern.
According to Mr Kaakyire, unlike other districts, one part of the Afigya-Kwabre District Assembly was purely rural while the other was which is close to Kumasi, was a bit urban, and for that reason, the assembly was not able to generate funds to supplement the District Assemblies’ Common Fund.
He said the rural part of the district was inundated with problems, including limited education and health infrastructure, public places of convenience and market facilities, while the other side of the district which was a bit developed and could generate funds had turned out to be a different story.
According to Mr Kaakyire, because of its proximity to Kumasi, most of the people who should have traded in the area to generate funds and other benefits to the district travelled to undertake their transactions in Kumasi.
He said the district was very receptive to investors, and that both citizens and non-citizens were welcome to the area to have great returns on their investments to create employment opportunities for the people, revenue for the assembly the development of the district.
The DCE said the area was endowed with natural resources, especially large areas of rocks for stone quarry and land for agriculture and other industrial purposes.
He added that because the area was close to Kumasi which was becoming congested, investors could locate to the area and produce for the Kumasi market.
Speaking on his vision for the district, the DCE said as the political head of the area, he would see to the implementation of the programmes and projects drawn by the district assembly, but said his priority would be on education, health and sanitation.
He said education was the first priority because through that the district had been able to produce very high calibre citizens who occupied high public and private positions both in the country and outside.
Mr Kaakyire said another issue of concern was that in recent times, educational standards in the district was falling drastically and he would make it a priority to reverse the trend.
According to Mr Kaakyire, the assembly was also planning to invite some of the citizens of the area who occupied high positions in both public and private places to serve as role models to the children and youth in the area.
He appealed to the citizens of the area to put the 2008 general election behind them and forge ahead in unity to find solutions to the problems facing the young district assembly.
Portrait of Mr Oppong Kyekyeku Kaakyire, the DCE for Afigya-Sekyere.
No comments:
Post a Comment