Sekyere Kumawu District benefits 87 projects

The Sekyere Kumawu District Assembly executed a total of 87 projects from various sources of funding during the first administration of the Nana Akufo-Addo-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) government.

The Sekyere Kumawu District, with its capital at Kumawu, has 23 electoral areas, namely, Dadease, Woraso, Bodwease, Bodomase, Bosoro, Nkwanta, Temante, Anenenya, Akrofonso, Sekyere, Abotanso, Wionso, Asekyerewa, Oyoko Bomeng, Papease, Akotosu, and Kumawu Wonoo.

The District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. Samuel Addai Agyekum, said all the 20 communities had benefited from one or two projects over the years since 2017.

The DCE was reacting to claims by a group calling itself “Concerned Citizens of Sekyere Kumawu” in sections of the media that he (DCE) had not made any significant achievement for the district since his appointment.

According to the group, Mr. Addai Agyekum had not performed and that there was no tangible development in the district, resulting in retarded progress, for which they suggested that the President must not to reappoint him because he had not performed. .

But the DCE debunked the claims of the group, saying his accusers were ignorant and not on the ground.

He said the Kumawu Traditional Area, and the District as a whole, has had its share of the national cake, and that the claim by the said the concerned citizens of Kumawu, that the DCE has done very little in terms of development, was a mark of ingratitude.

The DCE said his accusers were hiding behind some selfless politicians and unscrupulous elements and individuals in the pursuit of a hidden agenda at the expense of party unity.

He mentioned infrastructural development championed by the government through the Assembly as the rehabilitation of 1 No 3 unit classroom block with office and store at Asekyerewa Methodist Primary School, the completion of 1 No 3 unit classroom block for Sekyere D/A Junior High School (JHS); construction of Police Station at Akotosu, rehabilitation of Kumawu Circuit Court and the construction of 1 No three seater W/C toilet facility at the Woraso Health Center.

Other projects include construction of one No 10 seater water closet toilet facility at Hyiawu-Kumawu, completion of Special Ward at Kumawu Polyclinic, rehabilitation of one Kindergarten (KG) block at Bodomase R/C, construction of one Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) Compound at Dadease, construction of 12-seater Aqua Privy Toilet at Aninangya, and the construction of two- storey offices of 29 lockable stores at the Kumawu Lorry Park.

The rest are the rehabilitation of Woraso Police Station, construction of 8.60 kilometres Oyoko- Sekyere-Banko road, construction of Buffer Stock warehouse at Yawsoadwa -Wonoo, construction of two No 10 water closet toilet facility at Tweneboa Kodua Senior High School (SHS) under IPEP, construction of one No 10 water closet toilet facility at Dadease SHS under IPEP, construction of one No 6 unit classroom block at Bodomase Senior High Tech School (GNPC), and the construction of 12.20 kilometres Bodomase-Brempotia-Ntaretare road.

The Sekyere Kumawu District Assembly, he said, had also provided a new 20-stall market, and constructed an overhead water supply system for the people of Oyoko with funding from its Common Fund.

He mentioned that the Assembly had undertaken a major rehabilitation of the Oyoko Methodist JHS at the cost of GH¢93,000 under an adoption, while the Assembly had also initiated the construction of a water closet lavatory for the Oyoko Zongo community.

Samuel Addai Agyekum also said the Assembly had financed the renovation and expansion works at the primary and kindergarten block of the Dadease Salvation Army Basic Schools at GH¢86,000, as well as constructing a GH¢250,000 water closet sanitary facility for Wonoo.

DCE Agyekum announced that the Assembly was developing the Wala Waterfalls in the Bomfobiri Sanctuary near Temante to harness the tourism potentials of the site and thus generate revenue for the development of the area, for which initiative a Tourism Development Board had been instituted to provide institutional direction for tourism in the district.

He said the Assembly was also currently doing some publicity/marketing of the waterfalls as a good tourism destination in the Ashanti Region and the nation as a whole, for which two tourism ambassadors, who have been very instrumental in placing the waterfalls on the tourism map of Ghana, have been inaugurated by the Assembly.

The Sekyere Kumawu District Assembly has also cleared accumulated refuse dumps at 13 communities, including the Oyoko township in the district at the cost of GH¢55,000 from its Internally Generated Funds, through which exercise the Assembly had saved GH¢105,000 by awarding the contract to P Truck Construction Company Limited.

The DCE mentioned that the Sekyere Kumawu District was among six in the Ashanti Region, and 10 assemblies nationwide, to benefit from the Boosting Green Employment and Enterprise Opportunities (GrEEn) Programme being supported by the European Union (EU) via United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) and the Netherlands Development Organisation (SNV).

Under the programme, each of the beneficiary metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) was to be allocated an amount of US$40,000, based on the respective programme phases, each of which spans a two-year period.

The UNCDF has allocated additional US$90,000 to be disbursed to all the 10 MMDAs in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

DCE Addai Agyekum said the District Assembly was to invest heavily in agriculture and tourism to improve the socio-economic growth of the area.

He said the initiative was intended to bring total transformational development through the industrialist economy in the country, hence, the need to invest much in the agricultural sector to absorb most of the unemployed youth in the district.

He revealed that tourism had become a new discovery area of development, for which the Assembly intends to focus on to attract more people and investors to the area in the quest to create more jobs for the people, in addition to the agricultural sector.

According to the DCE, since the Sekyere Kumawu District was rated third in cashew production in the region, the Assembly had acquired about 6,000 hectares of land for cashew production and other crops like pawpaw and plantains to ensure it realises its objective of becoming the beacon in agriculture in the region, and the country as a whole.

 

He stated that the Assembly has embarked on training of some members of the disabled in the Bee keeping production and other skills development as well as investing about GH¢31,040.00 and GH¢16,080.00 into health and education in 2018 in assisting 95 and 54 males and females respectively.

He said the Assembly also invested about GH¢14,615,00; GH¢21,383.00, GH¢32,821 on Education, Health and economic empowerment in 2019 and further  invested GH¢5,200.00 in the training of 80 masters with one hot meal daily to enable them train other young people in skills while five youth were selected into the Rebecca Foundation to be trained as electricians and plumbers.

He disclosed that the district has received its share in the government’s One District One Factory initiative with the establishment of a Machine Resource Center to employ over 104 youth.

The Machine Resource Center, when completed, would manufacture bolt and nuts, fufu pounding machines, gari processing machines and palm oil.

The DCE also said two separate warehouses are under construction to store 2,000 metric tons of maize, Cassava and Cashews.

He said if the aforementioned projects were not significant and tangible then his accusers were refusing to admit the great strides by the government to improve upon the lot of the people.

Mr. Addai Agyekum emphasized that the aforementioned projects were tangible enough to attract anybody’s attention and advised the so-called Concerned Citizens to focus on consolidating programmes and projects by the Nana Akufo-Addo administration to bring more infrastructural development to enhance the socio-economic activities and improve the lot of the people.

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