Gov’t to upgrade 42 SHSs into model schools - Prez

Gov’t to upgrade 42 SHSs into model schools - Prez

Government has secured funding for the upgrading of some existing Senior High Schools into model schools as well as expansion of infrastructural facilities in some Community Day Senior High School across the country.

Besides, procurement processes for the supply of 70,000 mono desks, 13,000 beds, and furniture for dining halls as well as computer laboratories are almost complete.

“We will have much stronger supply of necessities for schools this year than we had last year. It’s an on-going process. Also, we have secured funding to enable us upgrade 75 senior high schools across the country. We would also work on the existing Community Day Senior High Schools.”

“In addition to that we are upgrading 42 Senior High Schools into model school status and some would be here in the Brong Ahafo Region. These are all going on as we speak.”

President Akufo-Addo was speaking at the Residency in Sunyani last Sunday at a meeting with paramount chiefs and the leadership of the Muslim community drawn from the western corridor of the Brong Ahafo Region.

The meeting formed part of the President’s three-day working visit to the Brong Ahafo region during which he inaugurated some projects, inspected work on some other on-going projects and cut the sod for the construction of new projects.

The President also announced the establishment of a Cashew Development Board by the end July this year as part of measures to properly regulate activities in the cashew production value chain.

President Akufo-Addo further said government was supporting the production 2,775,000 cashew and coffee seedlings for plantation on 13,400 hectares of land this year in various parts of the country.

“This year, government is supporting the production of 2,775,000 seedlings of cashew and coffee to plant 13,400 hectares; and also engaging some 900 Agric Extension Officers to help the farmers”, he said.

“At the end of the day”, he continued, “if we do not focus our attention on the processing of cashew and some other crops in Ghana so that we would have the value chain here, we would not derive maximum benefits from the agric sector, and that is the main focus of my policies; how we can process the majority of the cashew we grow here in Ghana so we can give a secured price to the farmers”

On Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) campaign, the President said the programme was being expanded this year to cover 500,000 farmers with plans underway by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to secure tractors, combined-harvesters, sprayers and other machinery for supply to farmers.

He said the Brong Ahafo region had been the biggest beneficiary of the resources allocated to the agric sector, especially under PFJ as 15% of farm inputs under the programme come into the region.

He commended the chiefs in the Brong Ahafo Region for their support to his government and their contribution toward the development of the region and the country as a whole.

On behalf of the chiefs, the Omanhene of Dwenem and the Vice-President of the Brong Ahafo Region House of Chiefs, Nana Bofo Bene IV, expressed concern about the sharp decline of the price of cashew nut produced in the region.

According to him, the price per bag of the commodity has reduced from Gh.c 850.00 to about Gh.c 400.00 in less than a year as a result of the absence of a regulatory body responsible for the protection of the interest of cashew farmers and appealed to the President to intervene in the situation.

The President later cut the sod for the construction of a new administration block for the Sunyani West District Assembly at Odomase.

Responding to a request for the elevation of the area to a municipal status, the President assured the chiefs and people of Sunyani West that he would consider that in the near future.

Earlier, the President and his entourage worshipped with the Holy Spirit Catholic Church at Nkwabeng, a suburb of Sunyani.

He was accompanied by the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh, the MP for Sunyani West and Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, the Minister of Regional Re-organisation and Development, Dan Botwe and the Board Chairman of the Ghana Infrastructural Investment Fund, among several others.

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