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Government votes 60 billion cedis for
street naming
Tamale, July 04, GNA - Government has voted 60 billion cedis
out of the HIPC Fund for street naming and house numbering
in the 10 regional capitals and some major towns throughout
the country.
The exercise to be completed by March, next year, would be
coupled with a robust database development for Metropolitan,
Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs).
Mr Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, Minister of Local Government,
Rural Development and Environment, (MLGRDE) announced this
at the opening session of a two-day technical workshop on
the draft Local Government Finance Bill (LGFB) and
establishment of Municipal Finance Authority for MMDAs in
the three northern regions in Tamale on Wednesday.
He said in a speech read on his behalf, that the exercise
when completed would improve the capacity of assemblies to
enhance their internally generated funds by about 50 per
cent.
Mr Asamoah-Boateng said MLGRDE and Ministry of Finance and
Economic Planning (MFEP) had embarked on a Municipal Finance
and Management Initiative (MFMI) to develop a sustainable,
vibrant and reliable local credit market for the assemblies
to cope with the backlog of infrastructure development and
service delivery.
He said the bill sought to provide a comprehensive law to
guide the assemblies in raising private capital, other
resources and empowering them to systematically move away
from over-reliance on central government transfers.
Mr Asamoah-Boateng said under the bill, a Municipal Finance
Authority (MFA) would be established to mobilise resources
from both internal and external sources and channel them
into productive infrastructure development and manage risk.
Mr Asamoah-Boateng explained that the bill would in addition
facilitate the transfer of expertise to the assemblies to
ensure rapid economic growth and poverty reduction.
Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, Northern Regional Minister, said
there were several credit enhancement mechanisms that could
increase the access of assemblies to capital market
financing.
He mentioned financing through pools of loans, reserved
funds provided at the individual loan level, aid intercepts,
collateral guarantees and seed fund provided by government
and donor communities as some of the interventions.
Alhaji Idris said: "Structured together, these credit
enhancement mechanisms could substantially increase the
credit available for infrastructural projects taken by a
single or coalition of assemblies."
He pointed out that what the assemblies were required to
access private capital market was the provision of
information about their budgets and finances, adding that
private lenders needed to make their own determination of
the assemblies' credit.
Alhaji Idris said such information had to include
administrative and legal structures, information about the
economies of the assemblies, their budgets, fiscal
operations and the anticipated borrowing that they would
undertake.
"We therefore need to put our acts together, open our
budgets and finances to public scrutiny and thereafter,
could access private capital market," he added.
GNA
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