PARTICIPANTS COMMEND MUNICIPAL ASSEMBLY FOR DEVELOPMENT EFFORTS

The Okaikwei North Municipal Assembly in Accra has organized its second Town Hall Meeting at Achimota in Accra with scores of participants seizing the occasion to duly commend the Assembly for the numerous developmental initiatives scattered across the municipality in a frame of two years.

They contend that the spate of development by the assembly within the time frame of two years has changed the phase of the municipality.

It was attended by traditional leaders, opinion leaders, youth groups, women’s groups, transport and trade associations, political party representatives, identifiable groups, among others.

A section of participants who commended the assembly urged the assembly to spread its infrastructural developmental drive to enable all citizens to duly benefit in due course.

In a welcome address, the Municipal chief Executive, Hon.Boye Layea said the key objective of local governance was to improve resource allocation and service delivery by not only bringing service providers closer to the citizens but also making the citizens part of the decision-making and management processes.

“Local governance is therefore expected to encourage government’s responsiveness to citizen participation and in the end ensure greater effectiveness, efficiency and accountability “, he said.

He said it is the duty of the assembly to sensitize the citizens in the municipality on how revenue is mobilized, key expenditure areas of the assembly and the challenges faced as against opportunities available to the assembly.

During such meetings, he said, views are solicited from the citizens present as to how best the assembly can perform effectively and efficiently to deliver and achieve goals and objectives to the benefit of all.

He indicated that the municipality has benefited immensely from the government within a period of two years of being in existence.

He mentioned some of the sectors under which immense strides have been achieved as including roads, education, markets among others.

He appealed to residents to fulfill their financial obligations to the assembly in whatever little amounts in the form of fees, rates and taxes to enable the assembly meet the developmental needs of the people.

In a brief remark, the Member of Parliament for the area, Hon.Fuseini Issah said due credit must be advanced to President Nana Akuffo-Addo’s government under whose watch governance has been brought to the doorstep of the people, adding it wasn’t the case before the assembly was created.

He said the impressive projects commissioned since the assembly was inaugurated are visible for all to see and the assembly would have undertaken even more greater projects had it been in created earlier.

One of the major challenges of the area, he said was the absence of standard storm drains of which an amount of two hundred million cedis have been allocated under the Greater Accra Resilient Integrated Development (GARID) project for the construction of storm drains in Accra metropolis.

He said approval has also been granted for the construction of the N1 footbridge between Apenkwa and Lapaz,  suburbs of Accra which would take off in due course.

The MP mentioned that under the 1million dollars per constituency fund, an AstroTurf field has been completed in the area adding that the refurbished Achimota Hospital Kitchen has also been completed.

He appealed to residents to pay their property rate to the assembly to enable it undertake more development projects.

In an open forum, a stool secretary to Achimota Traditional Authority, Nii Mettle urged the assembly to maintain the cordial relations with traditional authority which has played a key role in its administration, adding the outfit was ready to allocate land for development.

There was a powerpoint display of estimated revenue inflow and expenditure for participants to appreciate the sense of projected revenue and how it is applied for the benefit of the citizenry.

The chairman of the occasion, Rev. McDaniels Quartey, of Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Achimota advised squatters living along the edges of drains to vacate the place in the midst of unpredictable rains to forestall any disaster on their lives and livelihoods.

By Francis Cofie/Onmaonline.com