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Beneficiary communities urged to
educate people on MCA Programme
Winneba (C/R), March 21, GNA - Key stakeholders in
beneficiary districts of the Millennium Challenge Account
Programme (MCAP) have been urged to educate the people in
their districts on the immense benefits they could derive
from the programme.
"This is the type of contribution government expects from
all key stakeholders in the beneficiary districts to ensure
early attainment of the objectives of the MCAP", Dr Isaac
Karikari, Land Administration Project Manager of the
Millennium Development Authority (MIDA), said during a
two-day working visit to the Awutu-Effutu-Senya District.
A group of technocrats, including Land Title administrators,
Surveyors, and community facilitators accompanied Dr
Karikari.
Addressing heads of decentralized government departments,
establishments, agencies, Urban and Area Council
representatives at Winneba as part of
the tour, Dr Karikari said the most appreciable contribution
key stakeholders could make towards the realization of goals
set under the MCAP was to embark
on intensive education of the people on the MCA development
programmes in the selected districts.
This, Dr Karikari hoped, would have greater impact on the
citizenry to embrace the programme and release large tracts
of land for the implementation of various agricultural
projects planned under the MCAP.
He reiterated the underlying principle of MCAP to provide
Ghanaians with higher standards of living and propel the
economy to the middle-income status in a private
sector-driven economy within a decade.
Dr Karikari challenged the District Chief Executive for the
area, Solomon Kwashie Abbam-Quaye and the District Co-ordinating
Director, Peter Dery, to ensure effective supervision and
spearhead activities geared towards achieving better and
concrete results from the Millennium Challenge Account
Programme in the District.
Mr Selasi Adjorlolo, a community facilitator of the
Millennium Development Authority, said the principal agenda
of the MCA, Ghana, was to create wealth and eventually
reduce poverty in an enabling economic environment over a
five-year period.
Mr Adjorlolo maintained that the Millennium Challenge
Account Programme would cost approximately 547 Million US
dollars and was aimed at bringing down poverty by raising
farmers' incomes through private sector-led agribusiness
development.
He said the MIDA would focus on increasing the production of
high-value cash and staple food crops in certain areas of
Ghana to enhance the competitiveness of the country's export
base in horticultural and other traditional crops.
Mr Adjorlolo reiterated that the programme would operate in
three zones referred to as intervention zones, shared among
the 23 administrative districts in the Northern Region, the
Central Afram Plains basin and the Southern Horticultural
Belt, including the Awutu-Effutu-Senya District, where
poverty levels were generally above 40 percent.
The District Chief Executive for the area, Solomon Kwashie
Abbam-Quaye, on behalf of the stakeholders thanked Dr
Karikari and his team for the tour and assured them of his
outfit's determination to work harder together with other
leading stakeholders to make the programme succeed.
GNA
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