THE first regional meet-the-press encounter has been held in Koforidua with the assurance that development programmes intended to reduce poverty in the Eastern Region are on course.
The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo, who gave the assurance, said the region’s development programme would also ensure that all the communities had their fair share of social amenities.
He said the implementation of such development programmes was in fulfilment of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government’s “Better Ghana” agenda for the people.
The event was attended by members of the regional press corps, who asked questions on various issues, as well as technocrats, including heads of department in the region, some of whom assisted the regional minister, his deputy, Baba Jamal Mohamed Ahmed and the Information Minister, Mr John Tia Akologo, to answer questions.
Also present was the Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Elvis Afriyie Ankrah.
In a three-hour presentation contained in a 28-page document covering all aspects of the region’s development, the successes and challenges, Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said on the whole a lot had been achieved.
He added that by 2012, the people in all the communities might have been provided with the needed social amenities to improve their lot.
Mr Ofosu-Ampofo covered areas such as education, health, security, agriculture, tourism, the transport sector, especially the construction and rehabilitation of roads, and general infrastructural development.
With regard to education, he said 51 new schools would be built in the region and that provisions were being made to cater for additional students as a result of the extension of the duration of the senior high school system from three to four years.
The regional minister said the government’s initiatives such as the Capitation grant, free meals and school uniforms for schoolchildren in very deprived areas had led to increase in enrolment, especially at the basic level.
On health, he said although the region had only 107 doctors with the doctor-patient ratio of 1:22,300 and nurse-patient ration of 1:1,000, a lot had been achieved in that sector.
Mr Ofosu-Ampofo mentioned the reduction in maternal mortality from 250 per 100,000 live births in 2008 to 152 per 100,000 live births in 2009 and antenatal service coverage by 95 per cent as some of the achievements.
Additionally, he said a number of health facilities had either been provided or renovated and refurbished by the government with the support of the Government of Korea and some non-governmental organisations.
The health insurance scheme in the region, the regional minister stated, had also gained grounds with 1,636,662 people having been registered, constituting 75.67 per cent of the population in the region.
He, however, mentioned a number of challenges in the health sector such as HIV whose prevalent rate had remained at 4.2 per cent since 2007 and the recent cases of HINI at the Okuapeman Senior High School.
Mr Ofosu-Ampofo said the Regional Co-ordinating Council had taken the necessary measures to address the problems.
On roads, he said although it had also witnessed significant improvement, motor accidents had been on the rise, especially on the Eastern Region stretch of the Accra-Kumasi Highway and the Aburi-Mamfe Road.
He, however, stated that his outfit in collaboration with the Motor Traffic Unit of the Ghana Police Service and the Road Safety Committee were doing the best to curtail the accidents.
With regard to security, he said although the area had been generally peaceful, chieftancy disputes, activities of nomadic Fulani herdsmen who sometimes raped women on farms that had been destroyed by their animals, illegal gold and diamond mining often referred to as “galamsey” and illegal chainsaw operations had led to the death of people.
Mr Ofosu-Ampofo expressed the hope that continuous raids by the law-enforcing agencies would address such unlawful acts.
He solicited support from traditional rulers and land owners to deal with the challenges.
Mr Ofosu-Ampofo stated that other criminal activities such as murder, robbery, rape and defilement as well as dealings in narcotic drugs had reduced significantly from 2008.
He expressed the hope that the security agencies would continue to live up to expectation to bring such cases to the barest minimum.
The regional minister also spoke extensively on agriculture, saying that a total of 176,531 farmers had been technologically assisted to boost production of various food crops while 125,000 cocoa farmers had also had their farms sprayed free of charge.
He added that the initiative had led to increase in cocoa production.
Large scale privately owned farms such as the Kwanin Farms in the Kwahu North District (Afram Plains), he stated were also being assisted by the government to produce more food for export and home consumption.
The regional minister stated that the region had a lot of tourist facilities such as the Boti Falls at Huhunya, the Volta Lake, the Oda big tree supposed to be the biggest in West Africa, the Tetteh Quarshie Cocoa Farm at Mampong-Akuapem, the Craft Village at Aburi as well as numerous annual events such as traditional festivals and the newly introduced paragliding festival on the Kwahu Mountains.
He said since such facilities had continued to attract tourists to the region, his administration would offer the necessary assistance to develop them to earn more foreign exchange for the development of the area.
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