Beneficiary of loans owe Afram Plains Assembly 200 billion cedis.

Forifori (E/R) Sept. 28, GNA- Beneficiaries of loans granted under the poverty alleviation fund in the Afram plains district owe the assembly over 200 billion cedis since the disbursement of the loan facility seven years ago.

As a result of the huge indebtedness to the assembly, the assembly has decided not to disburse the loan to individuals again but rather would use it to purchase tractors and its accessories, Gari processing machine and outboard motors for distribution to all the nine area councils in the district into a plan pool.

The machinery would be rested out to farmers and fishermen on a subsidy rate to cultivate their crops and process some food crops to enhance their fishing activities to increase production to alleviate poverty in the area.

The District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. Solomon Yaw Fordjour announced this at a burbar of chiefs and people at Forifori as part of his farmiliarisation tour to some communities in the district.

He said 650 kilometres of feeder roads would be constructed with funds from the millennium challenge accounts to open up the area for foreign and local investors to undertake large scale mechanised farming and appealed to chiefs to release lands to the prospective investors. On the destruction of farm produce by Fulani herdsmen and their cattle, the DCE said about 300 armed police personnel and soldiers would soon be sent to the area to flush out all herdsmen and their cattle from the district.

He advised parents to take advantage of the capitation grant and send their children to school to reduce the high illiteracy rate among school children in the district.

The chief of Aframso,Nana Asare Bafour III said though the district produce a greater percentage of the nation's food requirement, the area has been neglected by previous government in terms of social amenities such as roads, markets, school infrastructure, potable water and financial assistance and appealed to the government to provide those amenities to enhance the living standard of the people. The tour took the DCE to Fosu, Kwame Dwamena, Maame Krobo, Ekye-Amanfrom, Tease, Odumasua, Odumasi and Agya Atta krom. Sept. 30 05