Bolgatanga, April 7, Government has been urged to come out with an effective Legislative Instrument (LI) to back the establishment of the Northern Ghana Development Fund (NGDF).
Dr Alhassan Yakubu, a Member of Parliament (MP) for the Mion Constituency in the Northern Region and Dr Hakeem Wemah, a representative of the Northern Development Forum, jointly made the call when they presented a paper on the topic, 'Northern Ghana Development Fund-Issues of Concern' at this year's Easter School held in Bolgatanga, Upper East Region.
In their separate presentations, they stressed the need for MPs, especially those from northern part of the country, to lobby seriously to ensure that the LI was passed to back the existence of the NGDF. This, they hoped, would enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of the Fund for Northerners.
The Fund, they stressed, should not be viewed as a political statement but a reality, saying Northerners were now conscious about the gap of development between the north and the south and that was why the issue had been brought to both national and international limelight. Dr Yakubu and Dr Wemah suggested that the LI should spell out the administrative instruments, legal boundaries and activities for the Fund.
They held that Northern Ghana had the potential to become economically independent but noted that the political and social mobilization attitude required to convert these potentials into benefits were lacking.
They noted that for the effective implementation of the NGDF, Government needed to decentralise its economic planning and development agenda to make way for its successful implementation, saying, with the present situation, heads at the regional level found it difficult to consult sector Ministers in Accra on execution of projects. "The national development planning system must have a decentralized ownership as essential ingredients in order to make development fairly balanced and equitable," Dr Yakubu reiterated.
The two persons called for the setting up of an NGDF Commission to oversee and ensure the transparent administration of the Fund.
Dr Yakubu and Dr Wemah advocated that the Fund should be owned by Northerners and administered by "competent experts who have the North at heart".
The two held that agricultural development accompanied by strong sustainable environmental protection strategies would be an important instrument for development as it would attract projects aimed at economic emancipation of the North.
Mr Ernest Patrick Mallet, a policy Analyst in the President's office, said Government was committed to bridging the gap of development between the North and the South.
He explained that the initiation of the NGDF with the seed money of GH¢25 million was a clear testimony of Government's commitment to Northern Ghana.
He urged management of the seed money to adopt innovative ways to make it grow and said Government would soon develop an acceptable medium of a long term development strategy that would aim at transforming the economy and the society of Northern Ghana and effectively raise the living standard of the people.
"Government hopes to also ensure the effective utilization of the region's competitive advantages in food and other agricultural commodities through modernization of agricultural practices by adding value to these agricultural commodities through industrialization to create wealth," he said.
