IN February, 2008, the Upper Manya Krobo District, an area comprising rural communities, was inaugurated.
Two main reasons accounted for the creation of the new district which was created out of the vast and populous Manya Krobo District.
In the first place, creation of the new district was to ensure that the numerous rural communities, most of which had not been provided with social amenities such as good roads, clinics, public places of convenience and educational infrastructure such as school buildings and residential facilities would be provided with funds from the new assembly.
Secondly, it was also to make it possible for an effective administration in such a way that the population, composed mainly of farmers and petty traders, would be properly taken care of in respect of the Government poverty alleviation measures.
The new district, with the exception of Asesewa, the capital, is composed of numerous towns, villages and hamlets.
Apart from Asesewa, an ancient town that has some basic amenities such as a hospital and a number of good school buildings, some of the main towns and villages like Dawa Korlewa, Osonson, Sekesua, Otrokper, Anyaboni, Samlesi, Sumuer Ternguanya and Mensah Dawa, lack a number of such facilities.
Another big problem is the inability of the people, mostly farmers, to go into large-scale production of food crops such as corn, all types of tubers and palm fruits which are processed into palm oil due to a lack of financial capital.
As a result, they operated on small holdings for local consumption, leaving little for the markets at Sekesua, Asesewa and Agormanya in the mother district which is now known as Lower Manya Krobo.
Some of the people are also engaged in petty trading of all sorts.
Although the previous administration did its best to address some of the infrastructural problems by instituting some poverty alleviation measures such as facilitation credit facilities from the banks and constructing a number of school buildings, clinics, roads and markets, not much has been accomplished.
Most of the farmers and traders still operate on small-scale, while a lot of the communities still lack basic social amenities, particularly educational infrastructure.
As a result, pupils in some communities, especially Bormase Whenya had to attend classes in dilapidated buildings some of which had been constructed some 50 years ago without renovation or under canopies erected with palm fronds, making it impossible for classes to be conducted during rainy days.
Realising the deplorable situation of the people, the District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr J.T. Angmor, has shortly on assumption of office, come out with an elaborate four-year programme to transform the district to become one of the best in the region.
Under the programme, all good projects initiated by the previous administration would be continued while those not properly awarded are to be repackaged while new projects would be executed in areas not yet covered.
The ongoing ones that would be completed included clinics at Sumuer Ternguanya and Samlesi, teachers’ bungalow at Anyaboni, modern public places of convenience and culverts at Asesewa and boreholes at Sekesua.
Contracts to be repackaged include spot improvement of the 10-kilometre Gyekiti-Obelemanya feeder road awarded in 2005, the construction of a six-unit classroom block with staff common room, office and store at Kwaopeniase which was given out on contract in 2006 and a slaughter house at Asesewa also awarded in 2006.
To ensure that all bad roads linking the communities are motorable at all times, especially during the rainy season, the assembly has just purchased a grader in that respect to be periodically shaping such roads.
The acquisition of the grader was in fulfillment of a promise the DCE made to the assembly members in his maiden address to the assembly.
A number of communities not yet provided with electricity would be hooked to the national grid.
Although a number of projects initiated by the previous administration such as the tarring of the two-kilometre Asesewa town roads and the wiring of the District Assembly Primary School also at Asesewa, had been completed, others are ongoing and the assembly has taken steps to ensure their early completion.
Some of such projects are the construction of a lorry park at Asesewa, Area Council offices at Mensah Dawa and Anyaboni.
Mr Angmor said his administration in line with the manifesto of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), would ensure that the people in the various communities received their fair share of the national cake in terms of social amenities and other poverty alleviation initiatives to improve their lot.
“You are all aware that our district is new and most of the communities do not have the basic amenities, and since it is a Herculean task to ensure that every community, would have all such amenities, I will do my best to ensure that every community benefit from at least one of the basic amenities such as good drinking water, school buildings or good roads”, the DCE told the House.
With regard to poverty alleviation initiatives such as the School Feeding Programme, only one school, the Presbyterian Primary School at Mensa Dawa, has been covered and steps were being taken to rope in other schools.
Since the Health Insurance and the National Youth Employment schemes have not yet been established in the district as a result of which the people have to rely on the mother district, Lower Manya Krobo for such initiatives,the assembly has taken steps to have such programmes firmly established in the district.
The assembly has also decided to sponsor students from the communities in colleges of education as well as nurses’ training colleges so that after their training, they would serve in the district.
Although most of these initiatives, especially the provision of social amenities and other programmes would be funded by the Government and other donors such as the European Union and Plan Ghana, a lot would have to be sourced from the assembly.
However, the financial position of the assembly like that of any other newly-created district is weak.
For instance, out of this year’s target of GH¢903.300 made up of internally-generated funds, grants and other sources to support its numerous projects and programmes of which GH¢206,000 would be from internally-generated funds, only GH¢19,008.80 was collected by the end of the first quarter of the year, representing 9.2 per cent.
To reverse the situation, the assembly has put in place the necessary mechanism to plug the loopholes to increase revenue, particularly at the big marketing centres in the district such as Asesewa, Akateng and Sekesua, the main sources of internally-generated revenue.
It is expected that with these initiatives and programmes, the commitment and dynamism of the DCE coupled with the support from assembly members, the district, currently among the deprived in the region, would be transformed into one of the best in the foreseeable future.
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