Accra, May 7, GNA – Mr Kofi Ofori, the Municipal Chief Executive for Ablekuma North has said education in the municipality had received a significant boost in infrastructure and logistics since the inception of the Assembly two years ago.
He said over 3,000 school furniture have been distributed across the municipality and that more supplies were in the offing to ensure that every child has a desk while 1,276 pieces of school uniforms have been given out to pupils in the area.
“The construction of 18-unit classroom block with ancillary facilities at Kwashieman and Odorkor ‘4’ and ‘5’ cluster of schools are in progress,” adding that both the ground and the first floors of the building have been completed and occupied by the students.
Mr Ofori made this known in his sessional address during the First Ordinary Meeting of the Second Session of the Ablekuma North Municipal Assembly to evaluate the progress made by the Assembly in respect of projects and programmes in its 2018-2019 Medium Term Development Plan.
The MCE said the academic year enrolment at various schools has increased significantly and expressed gratitude to the Ministry of Education for the introduction of the new curriculum while adequate personal protective equipment has been supplied to prevent the spread of the COVID-19.
On revenue, Mr Ofori said, as at the end of the first quarter of this year, revenue collection stood at 29 per cent of the annual budgeted amount of GHc3,916,476.05 and that the Assembly was faced with the challenge of payment of tax by residents given the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said the Assembly to improve its income generation and mobilisation to match the increasing expenditure, management has entered into a partnership with the Weija Business Resource Centre under the National Board for Small Scale Industries, to assist in the collection of revenue from signage and billboards.
“We expect that the coming on board of this state agency would help block leakages in revenue mobilisation,” Mr Ofori said and that more education would be carried out by the Assembly to prevail on the people to honour their tax obligations.
He said the Assembly has also rolled out a plan to evaluate all immovable properties with the assistance of the Land Valuation Division of the Lands Commission.
He said management was committed to cutting down on expenses and redirect the gains in other areas of development and that works on roads and drainage in the municipality would be carried out.
Mr Ofori said sanitation issues were critical on the development agenda of the Assembly and would continue to educate the people for the proper management of liquid and solid waste to protect the environment while preventing diseases.
“We are consciously embarking on the implementation of the one-house one-bin project to curtail the rate of indiscriminate waste disposal and it is important that the nation take a decisive step on the issue of plastic waste, which continue to upset the environment by blocking the free-flow of water,” he said.
The MCE said the Assembly was dredging most drains to forestall the menace of flooding in the municipality.
Mr Ofori expressed gratitude to all stakeholders who played a part in the successes chalked by the Assembly and that in its next phase massive infrastructure and social transformation would be realised.
GNA
GNA