2nd Tranche of “1-Million Dollars per Constituency” Projects Start in Bongo

The Ministry for Special Development Initiatives has disbursed the second tranche of funds totaling 500,000.00 Ghana Cedis, to the Bongo District Assembly in the Upper East Region. This release is for the execution of relevant projects in the education and water sectors.

Bongo DCE, Hon. Peter Ayinbisa Ayamga

Bongo District Chief Executive [DCE] Hon. Peter Ayinbisa Ayamga, subsequently on Friday February 8, 2019, handed over sites to contractors for the construction of two separate school blocks in the Gorigo and Zorkor-Kanga communities. He said a three-unit classroom block with ancillary facilities such as staff common room, store and head-teacher’s office would be constructed in both communities. He added that, the project in the former would serve as a Junior High School [JHS] whilst the other in the latter, was to replace an existing primary school which had been operating under a pavilion as its main infrastructure for several years now.

According to the DCE, six boreholes to be drilled and fitted with hand-pumps in selected communities, also formed part of the package. The beneficiary communities for the boreholes component include Kudorogor, Feo-Asabre, Soe-Sanabisi and Beo among others.

He charged the contractors to deliver quality projects within the stipulated contract periods as “these projects were dear to government as an entity and very important to the communities as the end-users”. He said for instance, the school projects were to be completed within four months. He also disclosed that, the two school projects will each cost 190,000.00 Ghana Cedis while all the boreholes will total 120,000.00 Ghana Cedis.

Hon. Ayamga recalled that, while then candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo pledged to disburse One Million US Dollars to each constituency in Ghana per year during the 2016 electioneering campaigns, there were some people who doubted him while others wondered whether it was coming in physical cash to be shared in the constituencies. But the DCE was satisfied that with just two years into his administration, President Nana Addo had lived up to this pledge and that, the results were everywhere to be seen.

The DCE revealed that, in 2018 for instance, his district and for that matter, the Bongo Constituency, received assorted development projects worth 500,000.00 Ghana Cedis. This amount he stated, went into the construction of a ware house at Bogrigor, construction and installation of solar-powered mechanised water supply systems and construction of modern toilet facilities among others.

He commended the Gorigor chief, his people and the “Tindana” [traditional land custodian] for donating a parcel of land for the school project free-of-charge. He thus, called on other communities to do same so as to hasten the execution of development projects in the district.

Assembly man for the Gorigor Electoral Area, Hon. Anafo Abowine praised government for the JHS project in his community disclosing that, since the start of the primary school for his people, it has been over 20 years that they lacked a JHS. Owing to this, students in the area had to trek about five kilometres or more daily to the closest JHSs either in Bongo or Atampiisi.

In a related development, Bongo DCE by late afternoon the same day, addressed a stakeholders’ forum on education standards. Speaking at the event orgainsed by the Bongo Youth Association to among other issues, find lasting ways to remedy the perpetual poor academic performance by students in the area, Hon. Ayamga mentioned teacher absenteeism, parental neglect, indiscipline and unwillingness of students to stick to their books, as causal factors leading to poor academic results.

Hon. Ayamga noted that, education remained a high priority for the Nana Addo-led government “as it empowers individuals, their families and the nation at large to take charge of issues relating to the well-being of people and a secured environment”. He said this therefore led the President to roll out the Free Senior High School Programme in September, 2017 coupled with the provision of several school infrastructure at the various levels of the education ladder.

He revealed that the Assembly had allocated 1,295,100.00 Ghana Cedis to be invested in the district’s education sector in the course of 2019. The amount he intimated, represents 13 percent of the Assembly’s 2019 budget emphasizing that, the Assembly places high premium on education.

Source: Peter Atogewe Wedam (ISD)

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