MMDAs advised to focus on internally generated funds for development

A Lecturer at the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS), Mr. Bless Darkey on Wednesday urged Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to be proactive and evolve strategies to develop local resources for revenue creation.

He said the current situation where Assemblies rely or wait on Government for the District Assemblies’ Common Fund before undertaking development projects must be a thing of the past.

Mr. Darkey gave the advice at a day’s capacity building workshop on “Local Governance and Development” organized by the Ekumfi District Assembly for Assembly Members in the Mfantseman East Constituency of the Central Region.

The workshop, the first of series of workshops to be held for Assembly Members, was attended by the 37 Assembly members of the newly-created Ekumfi District.

He said there were many untapped resources and potentials such the undeveloped beach fronts along the coastal belt, large deposits of quality clay for the construction industry and salt mining which could be developed.

Mr. Darkey also appealed to the Assembly members to exude qualities of transparency, integrity and accountability as well as work hard individually and also as a team to ensure the total development of the District.

Mr. Samuel Keita, the District Planning Officer, said the vision of the District, which is an agrarian community, was to become a first class investment and tourism destination centre in the country and called on the Assembly Members to work in tandem with the administration to achieve that goal.

He said challenges facing the District are poor academic performance of pupils at the basic level, inadequate health facilities, inadequate promotion of domestic tourism, high level of unemployment among the youth and inadequate distribution of potable water.

Mr. Emmanuel Baisie, District Coordinating Director, said the essence of the workshop was to strengthen the capacity of Assembly Members as well as staff of the Assembly to improve their performance.

He said the workshop would equip the Assembly Members to formulate better policies and programmes for the Assembly to enhance the rapid development of the District, adding that workshops would be organized for them regularly to keep them abreast.