Shama Assembly clamps down on video operators

The Shama District Assembly (SDA), in its bid to instill discipline among the youth of the area has embarked on an exercise to clamp down on video gaming centers.

“Our district has become a safe haven for some operators of video and gaming centers and the irony is that some of them do their activities in violation of the Ghana Gaming Commission License and the Assembly’s bye-laws” Mr Eric Cobbina, the District Chief Executive (DCE) said .

Mr Cobbina said this during the first ordinary meeting of the Shama District Assembly at Shama, a fishing community in the Western Region.

He said 27 gambling machines and one television set have been confiscated while those who complied with the bye-laws have been made to sign undertakings and their activities would be monitored.

On education, the DCE said the District has made improvement in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) with a recorded 76 percent pass rate in 2015 against 58.8 percent in 2014.

For further improvement, he said, the Education Directorate has been advised to hold two mock examinations for the final year students hoping that with effective monitoring the students would do better.

Mr Cobbina called on parents and guardians to support the efforts of the Assembly and teachers to ensure that their wards studied hard at home under a congenial atmosphere.

Touching on teenage pregnancy, Mr Cobbina said the situation is still a challenge in the District as record shows that between 18 and 20 percent are teenagers, “Meaning one out of every five reported pregnancy case is a teenager”.

He described the situation as unacceptable and called for concerted efforts and commitment in tackling the concern.

He said the HIV/AIDS prevalence rate stands at 1.9 percent, saying this “is higher than the national average of 1.3 percent which raises serious concern for us as a District”.

Mr Samuel Borlu, the Presiding Member, entreated the 25 members to respect each other’s view during debate while they should go about their debate with decorum.

The members unanimously agreed that until the ongoing projects were completed, no new ones should be given out on contracts except the mandatory projects which are in health and education.