Sekyere East portion of the Afram Plains needs development - DCE

Effiduase (Ash), Sept 29, GNA - Mr Philip Basoah, Sekyere East District Chief Executive, has called on the Government to include the district's portion of the Afram Plains in the Millennium Challenge Accounts (MCA) agricultural development programme for the benefit of the people.

He said inclusion of the district's portion, which has an arable land of 29,493 hectares, would be the beginning of the transformation of lives of the people in the area.

Mr Basoah made the call when addressing the opening session of an emergency meeting of the district assembly at Effiduase on Wednesday. He said implementation of the MCA programme in the district would not only introduce modernized agriculture and credit facilities to the farmers but would also ensure rapid improvement of the road network to transport foodstuffs to urban centres to improve incomes of the farmers. Mr Basoah said two-thirds of the size of the district was within the Afram Plains and was not accessible most parts of the year but had a lot of farming settlements.

The DCE said the area lacked basic facilities such as schools, good roads, electricity, water, health centres, and commended World Vision International (WVI) and Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, Asantehene's Programme on Partnership with Traditional Authorities and the World Bank, to improve living conditions in the area.

"We therefore, commend the World Vision International and Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, for giving hope to the hopeless in the area", he added.

Mr Basoah stressed the need for the assembly members and opinion leaders to draw attention of the Government, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and philanthropists to the plight of the people, adding: "We must not lose sight of the potentials and capacity of the area to produce food and cash crops to feed the nation and for export". "As accredited representatives of the people, we owe it as our duty to harness resources to ensure the rapid transformation of the socio-economic well being of our people."

"This is the only way we shall make the decentralization process more practical and meaningful to our people", he added.