America to improve living conditions in the North

The United States Ambassador to Ghana, Robert Porter Jackson, has announced some fresh plans being discharged by America to further improve living standards in the northern parts of Ghana.

He made the arrangements known Saturday in an interaction with the Upper East Regional Minister, Rockson Emmanuel Ayine Bukari, at the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council (UERCC).

Mr. Jackson, accompanied by a team of officials at the embassy and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), was in the region to “get a better sense” of the collaboration between America and Ghana in the region, the challenges in the north and how to build up the development partnership between the two countries.

“We are working with NEDCo (Northern Electricity Distribution Company) and we are anxious to make the electricity grid work well in the three northern regions. We are assisting NEDCo for the next three years and I’m hopeful that reliability and affordability of electricity will increase in the north.

“In education, we have furnished, countrywide, over three million books to primary schools and this year we are focusing on teacher training, and that includes the teachers here in the Upper East. We are also ensuring that children have reading materials in their own languages. So, we are publishing reading books in eleven languages to allow them to master skilled reading,” said the ambassador.

America concerned about Health, Agric and Security in Upper East

Mr. Jackson also spoke about America’s commitment to boosting people’s access to improved healthcare delivery in the north as well as best agricultural practices and appropriate tools to maximise yields.

“Border security is a priority for all of us. We have been training both the military and the police, providing them with equipment and we’ll be doing a major joint exercise later this year.

“I’m well aware that the police in the northern part of the country do not always get to [participate in the training] but I’ve spoken to the IGP (Inspector General of Police) about that. I hope we’ll continue to make progress to ensure that everyone who needs training gets training,” he stated.

He added: “Agriculture is a very important sector for us. We are guiding farmers [as to] when to use fertiliser, when not to use fertiliser to get the maximum yields from their farms. We’ll continue expanding the irrigation system and we’ll be looking at a new agricultural cooperation programme to focus on food security.”

Ambassador receives ‘State of the Region’ Reports

Regional security chiefs from the Ghana Police Service (GPS), the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) and the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) as well as heads of departments and agencies were on hand to offer answers when the ambassador asked about the security situation in the region and progress made so far about the One-District-One-Factory initiative and the Planting for Food and Jobs policy introduced by the Government of Ghana (GoG).

He also asked about the performance of schoolchildren in the region and the Regional Coordinating Council’s security collaboration with the neighbouring Burkina Faso and Togo.

“When I came here, we were experiencing broad-daylight robbery. My taskforce was able to deal with it. Crime wave is not too high here. We cannot say robbery is not there. It is there; but it’s minimal. When it comes to rape, it is there, but very low. Petty stealing is of a rate that is very high. Since April, last year, we’ve not recorded any daylight robbery again except the night one, especially on the Bawku-Tilli Road; but we have put measures in place.

“Our main focus is personnel. People are transferred to this region; they don’t want to come. At the end of the day, when you want to [post personnel], the men are not there. Even if they are there, their numbers do not match the population of the people we are policing. There is also no accommodation for some of the men,” replied the Upper East Regional Police Commander, DCOP Redeemer Vincent Dedjoe.

In his submission to the ambassador’s enquiry on government’s interventions in agriculture, the Upper East Regional Agriculture Extension Officer, Alhassan Zimi, said citizens’ response to the Planting for Food and Jobs calls had been overwhelming.

“We were able to register the [biggest] number of beneficiaries than other bigger regions. We exceeded the target of 60,000 beneficiaries. Out of these beneficiaries, over 40% of them are women farmers. They were given improved seeds, fertilisers and technical advice on good agronomy practices. We’ve just also finished with our Food Balance Sheet that tells us the productivity or the performance of the agricultural sector. There will be enough food for 2018,” Mr. Zimi indicated.

Regional Minister makes case for Teachers

Mr. Bukari, in a sofa interface with the ambassador, made persistent pleas for an additional college of education in the region and a need for teachers to be well motivated to help improve performance of pupils and students in the region.

“We need a teachers’ training college in the Upper East region. We have gotten a place at the Kongo Senior High School (in the Nabdam District). Teachers should be the centre of everything. What we need to do is to motivate teachers. And we need to do so directly through the assemblies because they are closer to the teachers.

“We are very grateful and hope that your presence here will add more development to what the region already has. We really need your support. This is a disadvantaged region. We are happy that you are here to be part of our envisaged success story,” said the Regional Minister, who also told the ambassador that the security and business bonds between his region and its West African neighbours had continued to bloom in strength.

The ambassador kept a note of the requests the Regional Minister zealously made on behalf of the region. The two political figures thereafter wrapped up the meeting by exchanging gifts in front of news cameras— a stripy smock for the ambassador and an items-filled paper bag for the Regional Minister— as the visitors rapturously looked forward to interacting with friendly crocodiles some minutes later at Ghana’s Paga Crocodile Pond near Burkina Faso.