Wa To Benefit Gov’t’s Aquaculture For Food And Jobs Programme

The Upper West Regional Minister, Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, has revealed that government will, in the coming days, launch another agricultural and poverty intervention programme dubbed Aquaculture for Food and Jobs.

He said in the Upper West Region, the Saint Francis Xavier Minor Seminary in the Wa Municipal and Baliofiiri Youth Centre in the Wa West District were among the selected communities and institutions in some regions to benefit the pilot programme.

“There is this programme coming up, it’s going to be a pilot programme in selected institutions and communities in some regions and Upper West Region fortunately is a beneficiary of this programme.

Saint Francis Xavier Minor Seminary and Baliofiiri Youth Centre in the Wa West District are the two to benefit under the Aquaculture for Food and Jobs programme”, Dr Bin Salih said at departmental heads meeting in Wa.

The government launched the flagship programmes of Planting for Food and Jobs, Planting for Export and Rural Development and the Rearing for Food and Jobs programme as part of efforts to transform the agricultural sector.

The interventions are also to reduce the rate of unemployment in the country as well as to improve on the livelihoods the people.

Touching on other development initiatives in the region, he said all District and Municipal Assemblies were to benefit the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project (GPSNP), a livelihood intervention initiative for rural and deprived communities.

The GPSNP is a successor of the World Bank funded Ghana Social Opportunity Project (GSOP) to strengthen safety net systems to improve the productivity of the poor households in 80 selected districts across the country.

The Regional Minister also urged the people to go out in their numbers to vote during the upcoming national referendum to allow for the election of Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives in the country, saying it required at least 40 per cent voter turnout and at least 70 per cent votes in favour of the amendment.

“As a government we want the amendment of the constitution so that our Chief Executives will be elected, that is the stand of the government and each of you should make sure this happens”, Dr Bin Salih noted.

Other areas of concern, the Regional Minister touched on were; improving the security and sanitation situations in the region.