Identify opportunities and take advantage of new region - NORTHCODE director urges youth

The Director of the Coalition for Development of Western Corridor of Northern Ghana (NORTHCODE) and Chairman of the Coalition of NGO's in Health in Northern Ghana,Chief Cletus Zume has implored the youth of the newly created Savannah Region to brace themselves up to take advantage of the many opportunities that would be created in the region.

According to him, Savannah Region is going to be the fastest growing region in Ghana and Damongo is going to be the fastest growing city in the sub-region considering its central and strategic location.

At a Local Accountability Network(LANET) stakeholder meeting held in Damongo Thursday, he admonished the youth to begin strategizing for themselves and their families within the new region.

Gonjaland he stated, has a very vast land with lots of natural resource deposit...He encouraged the youth to get money and acquire plots of land for posterity.

"It is clear that Damongo is very strategically located...We believe in the next four to five years, Damongo will be more populated. So everybody especially, the youth should begin bracing up for opportunities and take advantage of the opportunities. A lot of investors will be coming into the system. A lot of NGO's will be coming here. A lot of institutions will be coming here; so that they can take shape and support the region. As a new region, foreign and local investors will be coming in. So, we the natives must change our mindset and begin to strategize for now. Between Savannah region and North Eastern region, the Savannah region is going to be the fastest region in Ghana in terms of its growth and Damongo is going to be the fastest growing city in Ghana," he stressed.

On LANET, he said every responsible citizen is supposed to be a LANET member, adding that, LANET has a core mandate of collaborating fairly with government institutions and other CBO's, NGO's to contribute its quota to encouraging the district assemblies to serve the people and serve them well.

LANET in the West Gonja District he disclosed, chose health and educational sectors in their monitoring role with focus on structures such as; Canteen Primary School, Falahiat J.H.S, Girl's Model J.H.S, and Soalepe CHPS facility.

He commended the district assembly for the progress of work in ensuring that contracts on school building and health facilities are completed on schedule with standards specifications and value for money.



Mr.John Osman Mahama of the West Gonja District Assembly commended LANET for the good works. He disclosed that, the funding for the completed Falahiat school block, which is part of the projects being monitored by LANET is from Stool Lands.

He said the assembly is ever ready to give information to the public once the due channel is followed to request for the information. He urged citizens to ask for accountability and put local leaders on their toes by speaking out against the ills of society and helping to ensure value for money in contract execution in their localities.

"The only thing we the citizens must do is to ask for accountability. When you hear that a project is going on in your community, visit the site and get the evidence. If the contractor is not doing well, come and report. If he is doing shoddy work, come and report. When you see something that is not going on well, voice it out...Don't just sit down and complain and insult the assembly because, we are all part of the community," he stated.

He disclosed that the World Bank was supporting the CHPS compounds in the district with funding to be able to adequately provide primary health care. The project he said, is performance-based and started in 2016 with West Gonja District, but now has eight districts across the country as beneficiaries. He challenged the media and LANET to monitor the execution of this project in the larger interest.

A LANET executive member, Fuseini Ibrahim lamented about the poor information flow from the assembly to the citizens. By way of bridging the information gap, he appealed to the assembly through the assemblypersons to constantly hold accountability forums in the various electoral areas to enlighten the citizens on projects being executed in the various areas.

Mr.Ananpansah B Abraham, a LANET member entreated assembly persons to work closely with their unit committees in identifying peculiar challenges of the people and bring governance to their doorsteps. He pleaded with the assembly to do well and furnish the Kojope CHPS compound as promised so that, it can be put to proper use.