Regional News of Sunday, 16 February 2020
Source: Michael Oberteye, Contributor
The Asuogyaman District Assembly has organized its second edition of Meet the Press at the assembly hall of the District Assembly in the Eastern Region.
The meeting was aimed at showcasing the progress of the assembly and to provide an account of development projects with pictorial evidence of projects undertaken within the jurisdiction of the Asuogyaman Municipal Assembly.
The DCE, Mr. Samuel Kwame Agyekum, as part of the presser delivered a detailed account of the quest of the Asuogyaman district assembly to promote the activities of the district and government through participatory governance, transparency and accountability aimed at disseminating government’s information through development communication to engage key stakeholders in order to receive feedback to stir the confidence in the government to improve and sustain the development Agenda.
While the assembly has successfully completed a wide range of projects including educational infrastructure such as classrooms and teachers’ bungalows, water projects and toilet facilities, the construction of much more, largely in the above categories, remain ongoing.
In his presentation, the assembly chief in a summary of District profile of asuogyaman, finance, scholarship beneficiaries, NABCO trainees and infrastructure - ongoing and completed projects among others, indicated that the meeting was meant to make information available to the general public through the Media.
The assembly chief outlined a number of completed and commissioned projects including a KG block, a teachers’ quarters at Mpakadan, a 6 unit Classroom Block at Serdom, donation of chairs to Anum Vocational institute, 200 seater canteen at New Senchi RJC Primary School, a New Administration Block at Akwamuman Senior High School, fourteen (14) Seater Toilet Facility - Apeguso Dwenasi (Rands Buildus ltd), Business Resource Centre at Senchi, a 3 unit Classroom Block at Apeguso Resettlement Town (VRA Resettlement Trust Fund) and water project at Labolabo and Adjena.
Mr. Agyekum said the Assembly undertook many development projects since the assumption of office of the current administration and the meet the press offered an appropriate opportunity to communicate to the people properly for them to know what the Assembly was doing.
He said there had been increase in the number of schools under the school feeding programme, from eighteen (18) schools in December, 2016 to forty (40) schools as at October, 2019.
Additionally, school enrolment in five public senior high schools in the district had increased by 68.2%, from 6,463 to 9,481 in Akwamuman Senior High School, Adjena Senior High Technical School, Anum Presby Senior High School, Apeguso Senior High School and the Boso Senior High Technical School.
The DCE disclosed that the assembly, aside reviving the activities of the District Education Observer Committee (DEOC) after 7 years of dormancy, also improved the general performance of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) from 67.9% in 2017 to 73.1% in the 2018 academic year with a regional ranking also improving from its 17th position in 2017 to 10th position in 2018.
Touching on the health sector, he indicated that the Assembly, under the leadership of the Hon. District Chief Executive, an ambulance belonging to the Assembly which had been abandoned for ten (10) years has been rehabilitated for use.
The Asuogyaman District Assembly, as a result of its efforts and support from well-meaning citizens from the district, has been working tirelessly since 2017 to get its major roads reconstructed.
With the road network from Marine through Adumasa, Gyakiti and Anyaase and Osebeng through Anum and Boso currently under construction and the processes for the construction of others including Apeguso to Mpakadan, Adomi Bridge to Asikuma, Anyase to Kudikope, the assembly chief is convinced that Asuogyaman would have the best road network in the country by the end of his tenure.
Some other ongoing projects include the construction of classroom blocks, teachers’ quarters, KVIPs, CHPS compounds, etc.
Other areas the DCE touched on included the Nation Builders Corps, financial performance and the decentralization of scholarship application service.
District Coordinating Director for Asuogyaman, Mr. Joshua Kwabla, Heads of Departments of the assembly and various media houses including print, TV, radio and online portals were present at the event.