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General News of Tuesday, 12 February 2008

Source: GNA

Regent of Dagbon calls for increased support

Yendi, Feb. 12, GNA - The Kampakuya-Na, Na Abdulai Yakubu Andani, the regent of Dagbon, has appealed to non-governmental organisations operating in the region to increase their financial support to help develop the three northern regions.

He said the regions' people would continue to move down south to seek non-existent jobs due to the unfavourable conditions in the north and stressed the need for the numerous NGOs operating there to come together and make the north favourable for its citizens to stay and develop.

Na Yakubu Andani made the appeal on Monday when Dr Seth Bekoe, a Board Member of Brothers Brother Foundation (BBF), a US based International Charity NGO working in partnership with the Northern Ghana Aid (NOGAID), a Tamale based international NGO, paid a courtesy call on him at the Gbewaa palace in Yendi.

BBF is operating in about 48 countries in areas of education, healthcare support and other humanitarian services and helped the NOGAID with funds last year to supply surgical equipment to the Tamale Teaching Hospital and the Wa and Bolgatanga Regional hospitals.

Na Yakubu Andani said contributions of NGOs to the development of the north could not be quantified and that the only legacy that NGOs could leave as landmark in their operational areas was permanent income-generating ventures.

He suggested the need for NGOs and government to attach more importance to Information Communication Technology (ICT) to ensure that students, particularly those in polytechnics, gained enough experience on ICT to "Technologically" develop the north. He renewed the call on the government to respond to calls from the people of the north to come to the aid of the Tamale Teaching Hospital so that University for Development Study (UDS) medical students could be trained there instead of continuing in Kumasi and Accra. Dr Bekoe, who is a retired Cardiovascular and Thoracic surgeon in US, gave the assurance that BBF in collaboration with NOGAID, would continue to assist Ghana needy communities. Mr. Mustapha Sanah, Executive Director of NOGAID, catalogued the activities of NOGAID and BBF and said the two NGOs needed the support of chiefs and opinion leaders to ensure that the north was developed. Dr Bekoe earlier visited the Tamale Teaching Hospital to assess areas of support as well as libraries in some educational institutions to see how best he could stock the libraries with reading materials to enhance teaching and learning.