The Nandom District Assembly has spent 339 thousand, 611point three-five Ghana Cedis (GH₵ 339,611.35) as part of its social inclusion interventions.
The amount which was expended between 2017 and 2019 enabled the Assembly to support the vulnerable people in the District to meet some of their basic needs.
The DCE for Nandom Thaddeus Arkum Aasoglenang who announced this at Meet The Press series in Nandom said the government is very much concerned about the welfare of the disadvantaged hence the support to the beneficiaries.
In this piece, GBCs Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo captures the breakdown of the welfare packages as: 2017, GH₵63,632.35; 2018, GH₵80,898.00; and 2019, GH₵195,081.00.
This year (2019), the Assembly bought and distributed food stuff valued at seven thousand Ghana Cedis (GH₵ 7,000.00) to 25 cured lepers in the Nandom District.
The DCE, Thaddeus Arkum Aasoglenang who gave some statistics on the assistance to the socially vulnerable indicated that the LEAP beneficiaries so far in the district are 9748, lepers 25, people with disability 534 and that of school feeding pegged at 40735.
Mr. Aasoglenang equally shed light on the acquisition of land banks and District Planning Scheme to guide development in his area of jurisdiction and said: To ensure that land is available for government projects now and in future land banks have been acquired.
In all, 152 acres of land has been acquired in four different communities and are yet to be properly registered.
The lands are located in: Segru-2plots; Kambaa-46acres; Dondometeng-58 acres; and Puffien-46 acres.
The DCE said to avoid uncontrolled development in the District, the Assembly initiated the process of developing a 5-km radius District Planning Scheme in 2018.
Currently, the plan is completed and the draft plan is printed out to guide development within Nandom Township, Mr. Aasoglenang stated.
The District Planning Scheme would be very useful in assisting NABCO trainees to embark on the Digital Property Addressing and Tagging Project in Nandom District.
The Upper West Regional Minister, Dr. Hafiz Bin Salih praised the collaborative efforts of the DCE for Nandom and the Assembly members as well as the MP for Nandom, saying the synergy has inured to the benefit of the people of the area.
He pointed out that the government has enjoyed the cooperation and support of the good people of Upper West and urged them to continue to offer support to the government for it to implement policies and programs that will benefit the region.
The Minister of the Interior, Ambrose Dery stated security is a collective responsibility and asked all parties to play their parts as was done in Hamile to apprehend a Burkinabe who was found with a pistol in a church.
He pledged that government is going to continue to equip the security agencies. “The police as you know will soon have helicopters to be able to see us from the top. We will get them protective clothing and very soon our border management will take a leap, Mr. Dery observed.
Story by Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo