C/R DCEs to provide hostel to enhance accommodation at UCC

Cape Coast, Aug. 27, GNA - The Cape Coast Municipal Chief Executive, Muniru Arafat Nuhu on Tuesday announced that District Assemblies in the Central Region have decided to pool resources to construct a 100-roomed student's hostel to ease the accommodation problem at the University of Cape Coast (UCC).

Mr Nuhu, who announced this at the second ordinary meeting of the Cape Coast Municipal Assembly at Cape Coast, said it would to cost about 11.6 billion cedis.

He further announced that the Regional Coordinating Council had also directed the National Investment Bank (NIB) to deduct 8.5 million cedis from the District Assemblies' Common Fund (DACF) account of all assemblies in the Region in aid of a youth training project at Ajumako. The Chief Executive said during the first quarter the Assembly realised 668.519 million cedis of the set revenue target of more than 2.502 billion cedis for the year, representing 26.7 per cent.

He attributed the situation to the inability of the assembly to issue bills to property owners on time, coupled with the problem of identification of properties, since some house numbers had been washed off.

Mr Nuhu, in this regard, tasked the Land Valuation Board to re-number the affected houses for effective property rate collection and urged the Assembly to embark on a mass revenue mobilisation exercise to enable it to achieve its revenue target for the year. He, therefore, appealed to all traders, property owners and companies that are indebted to the assembly to fulfil their tax obligations.

He also expressed concern about the rate at which unauthorised structures, especially metal containers and kiosks were springing up in the Municipality, and exhorted the District Planning Committee, to suspend the issue of temporary permits for kiosks, containers and other structures.

He said projects, including construction of classroom blocks, KVIPs, and clinics under the HIPC initiative, EU assistance and the Village Infrastructure Programme were in progress and called on Assembly Members to endeavour to monitor and supervise their execution. On health, he said the proportion of children immunized against childhood diseases almost doubled for most of the antigens during the first half of the year but expressed regret about the re-emerging of yaws in some of the communities in the Municipality.