The Volta Regional Minister, Madam Helen Adwoa Ntoso, has called on municipal and district assemblies in the region to improve upon their internal revenue generation, and to adopt innovative ways in developing their areas without depending on the Common Fund.

According to Madam Ntoso, the assemblies ought to raise enough revenue internally, with the Common Fund only complementing what they have, instead of depending solely on the latter. The Minister was speaking at separate ceremonies at Yevi, Agormor-Agado and Ave-Afiadenyigba, all in the Akatsi North District, during the inauguration of a six-unit classroom block, and the launch of a School Feeding Programme initiated by the Akatsi North District Assembly through internally generated funds, among others,

Madam Ntoso commended the District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr. James Gunu, for quality leadership and demonstrating the effective use of the internally generated funds of the assembly. She noted that the introduction of the School Feeding Programme was the first-ever initiated by a District Assembly in the Volta Region.

Madam Ntoso also launched a programme dubbed, “One Project One Month”, which aims at completing one of the numerous projects embarked upon by the assembly each month to rapidly address the infrastructural deficit in the district.

The Regional Minister also addressed workers constructing a seven kilometre road at Yevi –Kpohe, under the Ghana Social Opportunity Project. She commended the local people working on the road, which is being dominated by women.

Madam Ntoso, who was highly impressed about the development projects completed and those ongoing in the Akatsi North District, disclosed that the Regional Coordinating Council had documented development projects completed and ongoing by all the 25 district assemblies.

The documentary, she noted, would be handed over to the Information Services Department to be shown in all communities in the region. This would also afford those living outside the region to appreciate what the government was doing.

The Regional Minister appealed to citizens from the region living outside to regularly visit the region and see for themselves projects that are being executed instead, and stop the usual noise that nothing was going on.

Mr. Gunu said the projects launched and inaugurated in the district by the Regional Minister were just a fraction of the total development activities in the area, explaining further that the newly-launched project – One Project, One Month – was aimed at spreading development to every part of the district throughout the year.

Mr. Gunu said the assembly had initiated the school feeding programme in 12 communities in the district, including Ashiagborvi, Amule, Nudowukope, Avega and Afiadenyigba among others, which, he noted, has helped to increase enrollment.

He called on parents to complement the efforts of the assembly by sending their wards to school to enable them benefit from the feeding programme. Mr. Gunu announced that the assembly would be spending GH¢320,000 a year on the school feeding programme, which would be derived from the internally generated fund, and urged the people in the district to support the assembly in its development activities.