By: Razak Baba
Flagbearer hopeful of the National Democratic Congress, Dr. Kwabena Duffuor, has donated public address equipment to three constituencies in the Ashanti Region, as part of his ‘Ahotɔ’ project.
The project is aimed at helping the grassroots of the party to be financially stable to run their operations efficiently in preparation for the NDC recapturing power in the 2024 general elections.
The beneficiary constituencies are Sekyere Afram Plains, Sekyere Kumawu, and Asante Akyem North. Each of the constituencies received 100 plastic chairs, four canopies, and a sound system amounting to 90 thousand Cedis. Ashanti Regional Correspondent, Razak Baba witnessed the launch of the project in the region and has filed this report.
The ‘Ahotɔ’ project is a direct response to the recommendations of a business feasibility study commissioned by Dr. Kwabena Duffuor a former finance minister in the erstwhile NDC government of Professor John Evans Atta Mills and also a business magnate and carried out by a team in Ghana. It was to establish the most feasible and sustainable business idea capable of helping to finance the NDC party activities at the local level.
Dr. Duffour bemoans the present situation where the responsibility of raising resources for grassroots activities of the NDC is either left in the hands of branch and constituency executives whose work for the party is purely voluntary, affecting their personal businesses and families, or in the hands of sitting MPs who are also overwhelmed by financial demands of their constituents.
The ‘Ahotɔ’ project is therefore meant to lessen the burden on MPs, and relieve local executives of the huge financial difficulties they face in running the party. It is believed that the NDC Ahotɔ Project will create a medium for the local party machinery to be financially self-sustaining through regular income streams to help support their ongoing initiatives. It is also to empower and reposition the NDC and make it battle-ready for election 2024 and beyond.
The project was recently launched at the Ashaiman Constituency in the Greater Accra region. In the Ashanti Region, the first three constituencies to benefit from the project are Sekyere Afram Plains, Sekyere Kumawu, and Asante Akyem North.
Each of the constituencies received 100 plastic chairs, four canopies, and a sound system amounting to 90 thousand Cedis. Addressing NDC sympathizers at separate durbars at Drobonso, Kumawu and Agogo, Kofi Aikins who represented Dr. Kwabena Duffour charged party constituency executives to make good use of the items to ensure that their intended purpose is achieved.
The ‘Ahotɔ’ Project Manager, Abass Osabutey said the equipment would be rented to generate revenue for the party at the constituency level and that revenue accrued will be used to finance party activities and support the party’s grassroots members.
