General News of Wednesday, 21 November 2018

Source: classfmonline.com

5 new districts coming

Hajia Alima Mahama is Local Government Minister Hajia Alima Mahama is Local Government Minister

The government has said it intends creating five new districts in order to facilitate development in those areas.

Some 38 new Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies were created in 2017.

Together with the proposed five, the country will have 259 MMDAs in total.

According to Deputy Local Government Minister, Collins Ntim, who laid a Legislative Instrument (L.I.) on the floor of parliament on Wednesday, 21 November 2018 for the new districts, the move will help decentralise governance and help extend development to other parts of the country.

Mr Ntim said the government is trying to deepen the processes of decentralisation and bring governance closer to citizens.

He emphasised that the government was also exploring efficient resource allocation to expedite wealth creation.

“Going forward, it became necessary that from the articulations coming from the public that there was a need to also have a second look at some of the districts and constituencies, so, the Ministry of Local Government had series of petitions… It has come to an acceptance that there is a need to consider uplifting some of the constituencies, about five of them, to a district status …” he told parliament.

The L.I. is also expected to reduce and re-demarcate the boundaries of the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) with some four other municipalities being created.