Vision 2020 was still born - Minister

The Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Edward Osei-Kwaku has described the Vision 2020 programme of the former National Democratic Congress (NDC) administration as "a stillborn document".

He said due to mismanagement, corruption and shortsightedness that went into the formulation of the programme, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration found it unviable to be continued and had to replace it with a 10-year development plan.

Mr Osei-Kwaku was answering a question on why the NPP administration had decided to replace the Vision 2020 with its own economic blue-print at a "People's Assembly" at Somanya in the Yilo Krobo District on Wednesday.

He said for the five years that the previous government was supposed to be implementing the programme none of the projected growth rates was achieved, saying: "From all indications, the vision of Ghana becoming a middle-income economy would have been a mirage."

He explained that it was for this reason that the NPP administration decided to come out with a 10-year economic programme that would be "more realistic and manageable".

On misgivings about the selected players for the Black Stars for the CAN 2002 in Mali, the Minister explained that the selection was based on the professional assessment of the players by the coach and the approval by Ghana Football Association (GFA) and said the team was capable of winning the trophy for the country for the fifth time.

The Deputy Minister of Health, Mr Moses Daniba on complaints by some parents over the charging of school fees by some heads of institutions above the government's stipulated fees, warned such heads to abide by the approved fees or face sanctions.

He warned that the government would not sit unconcerned for a few selfish school heads to defeat the policy of alleviating the sufferings of parents in their efforts to educate their children at affordable cost.

Mr Daniba gave the assurance that the payment of premiums under the proposed Health Insurance Scheme by those in the informal sector, such as farmers, would be tailored to meet their seasonal incomes situation as done by some community-based schemes already in place at Nkroranza and Dangbe West Districts.

The Eastern Regional Minister, Dr Francis Osafo Mensah, announced that 1,000 women farmers in the region were to be selected for credit facility under the government's Women-in-Agriculture policy this year.

He said the telecommunication industry was being opened up for more competition and said telephone connection to Somanya would be undertaken soon. The District Chief Executive for Yilo-Krobo, Mr Christian Tettey told the people that 10 kilometres of roads at Somanya would be tarred this year while eight selected feeder roads and a number of markets would be rehabilitated.

He announced that the district was among the five selected in the region to implement the President's Special Initiative on Cassava for the production of industrial starch, saying 40.5 hectares had already been acquired for the purpose while over 2,000 farmers would be registered under a Corporate Village Enterprise to implement the project.

A farmer appealed for the supply of more tractors to enhance agricultural production in the area while the District Director of Agriculture, Mr John Tsra-Kasu, appealed to the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to build workers flats in the districts.