Upper East Regional Minister designate unveils plans

Dr Ephraim Avea Nsoh, Upper East Regional Minister designate, said among his major priorities would be agriculture, education and health.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in interview in Bolgatanga at the weekend, he said one of the greatest resources the region had was agriculture and that what was needed was to group the farmers, empower them to undertake large scale farming and find market for their produce.

Dr Nosh said although government, through the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) and the Northern Rural Growth Programme was working to boost the agriculture sector, particularly the construction of new dams and renovation of old ones in the region, there was still more to be done.

On education, he said it was the key to unlocking poverty in the region and that he had already established Educational Support Fund at Vea for the students and would ensure that a regional one was established to cater for the brilliant but needy students.

Dr Nosh said he would work with the Ministry of Health and donor partners to ensure good incentive packages to attract doctors and health professionals to the region.

All the district assemblies would be tasked to provide good health facilities, office accommodation and good schools for the children of doctors and health professionals posted to the region, he said.

He said another area he would tackle is the empowerment of the youth and women groups since he had plans to look for donor funding to build their capacity to curb the rural urban migration.

Prior to his appointment, Dr Nsoh was the Head of Department, Department of Gur-Gonja Languages Education of the University of Education, Winneba.

He holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Ghana and Attestation (proficiency in French), Universite? de Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso among others. Dr Avea Nsoh had over the years mentored a lot of young academics to take up the mantle of leadership in academia, public service and the private sector.

He had also provided educational advice and guidance for young people to attain their educational goals and promoted indigenous language development in Ghana through language policy planning support and material development.

He established 30 women groups into village savings and loans associations for the mobilization of financial resources for investment and business development to reduce poverty in Bongo and Bolga districts.

On his contribution to the National Democratic Congress, Dr Nsoh had served in various positions including being the Patron of TEIN of NDC, University of Education, Winneba, and was a member of party and member of parliament campaign programmes planning team among others.

When the GNA sampled the views of people in the region, majority of the people, civil society organizations, women groups and the youth association endorsed his nomination and pledged to work with him to bring about development to the region.