Govt for People Forum held in Tamale

Dr Edward Omane Boamah, Minister of Communications, has urged businesses to reduce their imports and buy from local producers to enable them to grow their businesses to meet local demands.

He said this would also ensure the sustainable growth of the economy for the benefit of all.

Dr Omane Boamah said this when he addressed the “Government for the People’s Forum” held at Tamale, on Tuesday. It was attended by people from all walks of life in the region.

The forum has been instituted by the government as a means to provide an insight into its activities as well as serve as a platform to interact with the people.

Dr Omane Boamah said the challenges facing the country were as a result of the structure of the economy, therefore, there was need to transform the structure of the economy if the challenges were to be addressed.

To this end, he said, the government was working to promote the consumption of made in Ghana products to change the situation.

He said the government was also working to revive and strengthen local industries to improve their capacity to expand their operations to create jobs.

Alhaji Inusah Fuseini, Minister for Roads and Highways, said the government was committed to improving the road infrastructure to amongst others promote efficient transportation.

Alhaji Fuseini mentioned some of the road projects that had been completed, including the Tamale-Tolon Road and assured that a lot more roads would be completed on schedule to open up towns and communities to promote business activities.

Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, a Deputy Minister of Education, said education was one of the high priority sectors of the government as it received about 30 per cent of the total budgetary allocation for all the Ministries.

Mr Okudzeto Ablakwa said the education system continued to remain one of the most preferred as there were currently over 10,000 foreign students studying at the tertiary institutions.

He commended the 12 labour unions, especially those in the education sector, for calling off their almost two-week old strike and asked that the teachers did more to make up for the lost contact hours.

Alhaji Mohammed Muniru Limuna, Northern Regional Minister, enumerated a number of projects undertaken in the region and appealed to the residents “to unite and uphold peace at all times in this region so that we can focus more on the task of development.”