Minister appeals to donors to support Northern Development Fund

Bolgatanga , Sept 15, GNA - Mr Alhassan Samari, Upper East Regional Minister, on Wednesday, appealed to donor partners to contribute to the Northern Development Fund (NDF), established by the Government to enable the three Northern Regions, which are the most poorest in the country, to gain some level of development.

He also urged Non-Governmental Organizations operating in the three Northern Regions and those who intend to work in the area to always consult the Regional Coordinating Councils and the District Assemblies before undertaking their activities, since they were the right channels that could assist in identifying the areas which needs much development. The Regional Minister made the appeal when a team from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), led by the Canadian High Commissioner, Darren Schemmer and the President of CIDA, Ms Margaret Biggs, paid a courtesy call on him in Bolgatanga, during a working visit to the Region to assess the progress of work of some of their projects in the area.

Mr Samari attributed the poor nature state of the three Northern Regions to the British Colonial masters, who deliberately denied the people of the area education and used them as a source of labour to develop the other parts of the country to the neglect of the Regions. He said development in the area was slow, that was why the government established the NDF with seed money of 25 million dollars and appealed to donors to support the Fund to enable the development gap between the rest of the country and the three Northern regions to be bridged.

Mr Samari commended CIDA for its immense contribution in the area of health, education, agriculture and said under the District Wide Assisted Project (DWAP), which supports the budgetary allocation of the various districts in the three Northern Regions, Upper East Region since 2004 had benefited 130 projects.

He said CIDA had also supported the construction of 18 building structures, including schools that were affected by the flood that hit the Region in 2007.

He indicated that farmers in the Region had also benefited from farming equipment from CIDA, which enables them to undertake farming activities to supplement family income, especially during the dry seasons, along the white and red Volta.

The Minister thanked CIDA for supporting the Sustainable Peace Initiatives Project, put in place to address the conflict situation in the Bawku crisis and said it was yielding positive results. The Canadian High Commissioner and the CIDA President jointly commended the Regional Consultative Council (RCC) for its good approach methods of integrating development in the Region and appealed to the Council to work towards maintaining peace in the area for development. Ghana, they noted, had chalked greater success in its democratic dispensation and anything should not be done to undermine it. Some of the projects the Canadian team inspected included Schools, Health and markets structures.

Mr Emmanuel Chegeweh, District Chief Executive for the Kassena-Nankana District praised CIDA for their projects, saying that, it was helping a lot, especially in the area of potable water. He said the District had so far benefited from the DWAP with a total sum of GHC531, 000 and assured the team that the few on-going projects would soon be completed.