Yendi District Assembly spends 4.1 billion cedis on development

Yendi (N/R), May 24, GNA - The Yendi District Assembly has spent 4.1 billion cedis on a number of development projects through its share of the District Assemblies' Common Fund and a Canadaian International Development Association (CIDA) funded District Wide Assistance Project. The projects included the construction of a police station at Sang, market complex, two three-unit classroom blocks, rehabilitation of an Area Council block and a six-unit office block for the District Mutual Health Insurance Scheme, all at Yendi.

Alhaji Mohammed Habib Tijani, the District Chief Executive announced this at an inauguration ceremony at Yendi on Tuesday after conducting newsmen round the projects.

Alhaji Tijani reminded the people that human resource development was one of the government's priority areas of development saying: "It is against this background that the government is reviewing the educational reforms to make education holistic and affordable".

He said the Assembly had embarked on a massive infrastructure development process to provide decent classrooms to cater for the increasing enrolment in the schools and also to provide more accommodation for teachers. The DCE announced that the Assembly received six billion cedis as its share of the Common Fund for 2005 while the district received three tranches of the capitation grant totaling 605.2 million cedis for pre-school and primary levels for the 2004/2005 academic year. In the 2005/2006 academic year, the district was provided with 319.9 million cedis to cover pre-school to the JSS level, he said, adding that a number of needy children, especially girls, had been provided with school uniforms, bags and learning aides through the capitation grant.

Alhaji Tijani said during the 2005 financial year, the Assembly spent 465 million cedis as educational support for students pursuing courses at the university, Nurses and Teacher Training Colleges, senior secondary schools. The educational support also catered for needy students and students with disabilities.

The DCE commended CIDA for funding four school projects through the District Wide Assistance Project.

In another development, Alhaji Tijani has presented 25 television sets valued at 170 million cedis to a number of SSS, JSS and primary schools in the district to facilitate the distance learning programme. Mr Ziblim Nantogma, the District Director of Education, who received the items on behalf of the schools, commended the government, the District Assembly and the development partners for providing facilities to enhance education in the district.

Mr Nantogma said the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and the Environment had provided 17,940 exercise books for distribution to 766 pupils and more than 7,000 primary school children in the district.

He gave the assurance that the District Directorate of Education would collaborate with the Assembly to monitor the judicious use of the facilities provided.