Newly created District given assistance

Kukuom, (B/A), Jan. 10, GNA- The Asunafo District Assembly in Brong Ahafo has allocated 200 milion cedis for initial preparations towards the take-off of the newly-created Asunafo South District with its headquarters at Kukuom.

Mr. George Yaw Boakye, Asunafo District Chief Executive (DCE) who announced this at a durbar and a non-denominational church service at Kukuom to raise funds in support of the district, said the government has allocated six billion cedis to each of the new districts for infrastructural development.

He stated that the creation of the Asunafo South District has brought a relief to the Asunafo District since the burden of managing 435 towns and villages with 174,000 persons had been solved. Mr. Boakye however, reminded the people in the new district not to solely depend on government for development but rather initiate their own projects to attract the assistance of the central government and the district assembly.

He urged the people not to politicise the creation of the new district but rather combine their resources and ideas to develop the potentials of the area.

The District Chief Executive also asked entrepreneurs to invest in the new district since there were a lot of untapped resources in the area and mentioned tourism as one area, which needed immediate attention.

Mr. Boakye also stressed the importance of the impending voters' registration exercise by the Electoral Commission and called on the people to register in their numbers since allocation of resources to district assemblies largely depended on sizes of population.

He educated the people on the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and said a stakeholders meeting would be held soon to fix a premium for the beginning of the scheme in the area and asked family heads to ensure that all family members were registered.

Osahene Kwaku Aterkyi II, Omanhene of the Kukuom Traditional Area thanked the government for creating the new district and noted that this would ensure rapid development of the Ahafo section of the region. He noted that the process of the creating the Asunafo South District started as far back as 1944 and asked the people to provide accommodation for employees of the 27 decentralised departments who would be stationed in the district.

Osahene Aterkyi said that 120 million cedis would have to be raised to renovate an old structure to temporarily provide office accommodation for the DCE and his staff and called on the people to contribute generously towards the project.

Mr. George William Amponsah, Member of Parliament for Asunafo South assured the people that the government would continue to provide social amenities in the area to enable the new district to be at par with the other districts.