Don't marginalize Northern Ghana's development- Government told

Tamale, June 16, GNA - The Northern Ghana Network for Development (NGND), a nongovernmental organisation, has called on the Government to put an end to the perceived marginalization of Northern Ghana in the provision of development projects and programmes.

The NGO said it was aware of the Government's agenda aimed at poverty reduction and the general economic development of the country but the Northern Sector was not getting its fair share of development projects.

These concerns were raised at a press conference the NGO organised in Tamale on Thursday to throw light on some developments taking place in the country and the Government's attitude towards the development of Northern Ghana.

Mr Ibrahim Lansah, Executive Secretary NGND, who addressed the press conference, noted that since the year 2000, the Government had received a lot of support from foreign donor sources in the form of the "Multi-Donor Budget Support" and other grants.

He said the three Northern Regions had been identified as among the poorest in the country and had frequently been used by the Government when seeking foreign financial support for development. He noted, however, that when it came to the implementation of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) only Savelugu/Nanton District in the Northern Region was selected among the 23 districts in the country to benefit from the package.

As regards the criteria used for the selection of districts under the MCA, he said areas such as the White Volta Oncho-Freed basin or the Fumbisi Valley in the Upper East Region, had huge potentials for grain production to meet the national needs.

Mr Lansah also mentioned the fertile Katanga Valley located in the East Gonja District, saying that the area had the potential to produce grains.

"All this, including the irrigations sites in the three Northern Regions, can contribute to national food security, poverty reduction and economic development," he said.

He said to effectively reduce poverty and promote economic growth, the Government needed to design a well-thought out policy on household food security, especially for Northern Ghana.

This could be done by the provision of infrastructure such as small dugouts for community irrigation farming and alternative agricultural practices such as animal traction.

The NGO pledged "to mobilise civil society groups and all others, who are interested in the fair distribution of development resources and use all legitimate means to ensure that Northern Ghana gets fair treatment when it comes to national development".

However, the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Environment had explained that the Upper East and Upper West Regions were excluded from the MCA projects because the two Regions already had similar ongoing programmes.

Mr Kofi Poku-Adusei, Deputy Sector Minister, told a press conference in Accra on Wednesday that extending projects supported by the MCA to those Regions would have resulted in duplication.