President elect- Nana Akuffo Addo
The Ministry of Special Development Initiatives has disbursed US$1 million each to all the 275 constituencies in the country to be invested into government and development initiatives under the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP), Mrs Mavis Hawa Koomson, the sector minister, has revealed.
According to the minister, the government was poised to eradicate poverty and minimise inequality among socio-economic groups within geographical areas through the provision of basic infrastructure at the constituency level, especially in rural and deprived communities.
“To attain this, IPEP will be the main vehicle to direct capital expenditure towards constituency-level specific infrastructure and economic development, “she added.
Mrs Koomson was speaking at a meeting with chief executives, coordinating directors and development planning officers of Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies here in the Eastern Region.
The meeting was part of efforts to meet all MMDCEs in the 10 regions of the country and brief them on the IPEP, and educate them on their roles, principles and guidelines to the implementation of the programme, and also on how to use the US$1 million allocated to each constituency.
The minister explained that 70 per cent of the money disbursed would be used to fund government’s priority areas and initiatives, which include the One-District-One-Factory; One Village, One Dam; Small Business Development; Agricultural Infrastructure (warehouse and markets); Water for All Projects and Sanitation projects.
“The remaining 30 per cent will be used to implement other relevant projects needed by the constituencies, hence we expect MPs, MMDAs and all stakeholders to come together and come out with a plan of needed projects to be implemented,” she stated.
Mrs Koomson said a 10-member team for each constituency was being constituted and would be approved by cabinet to visit the constituencies to assess priority projects for implementation and urged the MMDCEs to give the team the necessary support.
Mrs Koomson said her outfit would work with the three development authorities, comprising the Northern, Coastal Belt and Middle Belt, adding that as the law demands, parliament would have to approve the existence of these authorities before her outfit could work with them.
“We are currently drafting a bill and would send it to Cabinet and to Parliament for approval before these authorities can work with us,” she said.
She, however, said that since the bill had not been approved yet, the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has charged them to put in place provisional measures to kick-start the IPEP, adding “that is why we are constituting the team, so that when Parliament approves the bill the authorities would take over. We hope to bring in the team by next week, finish with procurement process by July 31 and start implementation by August 1 this year.”
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CAPTION: Mrs Hawa Koomson
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