Canada to offer financial support to the three Northern Regions

Wa, May 28, GNA- The Canadian government would this year provide one hundred and ninety thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢ 190,000.00) to each district in the three Northern regions to undertake development projects of their choices.

It would also give technical advice when necessary to enable Ghana to achieve its development goals in the coming years.

Mr. Darren Schemmer, Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, announced this at Wa, on Thursday, when he paid a courtesy call on Mr. Mohamud Khalid, Upper West Regional Minister, as part of his two day visit to the Upper west Region.

He said the visit was to afford him the opportunity to familiarize himself with the new regional ministers, metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives that he would be collaborating with in the coming years.

The High Commissioner said the Upper West Region alone had received a total of GH¢3.4 million through its District Wide Assistance Programme and urged them to make judicious use of such opportunities to attract more attention from other donor agencies.

Mr. Khalid, who commended the Canadian Government for their tremendous support to the agricultural, health and sanitation sectors, appealed to them to consider supporting the region to extend electricity to some communities in the region.

"You will be surprised to hear that no community in the Wa East District has electricity, this is not helping in any way to uplift productivity in the entire region." He said the extension of electricity and construction of more dams in the communities could help stem the high rate of rural-urban drift and to bridge the North-South divide. The High Commissioner would inspect on-going projects in Jirapa, Wa East and Nadowli districts and also interact with the people in those areas.