Yendi Municipal Assembly receives UDG support

Government is making available to Yendi Municipal Assembly an amount of 656,400 US dollars to finance a number of Municipal Projects.

It would be recalled that Government recently launched the five-year urban Development Grant (UDG) for Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies which Yendi Municipal Assembly is a beneficiary.

The total grant amount for the period is estimated at 140 million US dollars.

The Yendi Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Issah Zakaria, announced this when he addressed the 2012 second ordinary meeting of the Yendi Municipal Assembly at Yendi in the Northern Region.

Mr. Zakaria said at the beginning of this year, the first assessment was conducted and the Yendi Municipal Assembly was among the 26 Metropolitan and Municipal Assemblies out of the 46 MMAS that qualified.

He said Government is making available to the Yendi Municipal Assembly the 656,400 US dollars to finance the construction of a modern lorry park in Yendi, rehabilitation of the Yendi Community Center, drains of Montia road, access road to Guntingli – Balogu, Procurement of 10 convenience at Nayilfong, Zohe, Balogu and Sikafuo among others.

Mr. Zakaria expressed unhappiness that the Assembly’s allocation of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) which was GH 2,317,520.48 in 2011 has been reduced to GH¢995,000.00 this year.

He said as a reduction of the allocation, the Assembly should not be expecting much under the common fund this year.

Mr. Zakaria said the Assembly has received an advice from Bank of Ghana that a net amount of GH¢76,229.76 has been credited to the Yendi Assembly’s DACF Account as its first quarter share of the DACF for 2012.

He appealed to the Assembly Revenue collectors to intensify their revenue collection adding that the Executive Committee has given its blessing for the creation of revenue barriers within all roads linking the Yendi Township.

Mr. Zakaria said due to the recruitment of additional commission Revenue Collectors, there has been improvement in the revenue collection and that as at 31st May, 2012, an Estimated amount of GH¢ 600,690.00 and the Actual of GH¢ 136,249.55 representing 23 percent from rates, lands, fees and fines, licenses, rent, investments amongst others were collected.

He said it has been identified that the level of apathy among the people in the Yendi Municipality is a major contribution of residents in the programmes of the Municipal Assembly.

He said to address this major constraint, the assembly has decided to effectively establish a Client Service Unit at the office of the Assembly for people to register their concerns.

The Presiding Member of the Assembly, Mr. Alhassan Adam, commended the Assembly Members for the way they attach seriousness to Assembly meetings adding that, the newly created Mion District which used to be part of the Yendi Municipal still needed some support from the Yendi Municipal Assembly. **