AMA exceeds revenue target – Mayor

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), exceeded its revenue target by four million Ghana cedis, in 2014.

The Assembly budgeted for 26 million Ghana cedis and collected 30 million Ghana cedis through an intensive revenue mobilization drive to generate more funds to expand the scope of its development projects.

Dr Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, the Accra Metropolitan Chief Executive, disclosed this at a sod-cutting ceremony for a 2.5-million Ghana cedi Millennium City School project at the Kwashieman Anglican Cluster of Schools in Accra.

He said the Assembly had targeted 86 million Ghana cedis for 2015 and called on its revenue officers to lend their support to realize its vision of transforming the city and building more schools in the metropolis.

He directed its task force to arrest any child found selling on the streets who was of school-going age, saying; “By our Constitution we owe our children education and we cannot continue to build schools and train teachers whilst we do not see the children in the classrooms in Accra.

“It is everyone’s responsibility to make sure that his or her child would be in the classroom so that we do not pay a high price when they are adults.”

Dr Vanderpuije appealed to parents to invest in their children’s education, which would not only benefit them but the nation as whole.

Mrs Angela Tina Mensah, Metropolitan Director of the Ghana Education Service, said community ownership of schools and teacher motivation were crucial in the development of quality education.

“We can have a holistic development of the child in a congenial atmosphere of partnership,” she said.

She urged teachers to go the extra mile to ensure quality education when the building was completed.

She expressed gratitude to the Accra Mayor for building three Millennium City Schools in the Ablekuma North District.

The Reverend Daniel Attuquaye Quaye, Parish Priest of the Anglican Church, commended the AMA and gave the assurance that the Church would continue to collaborate with the Assembly to ensure quality education in the Anglican schools.