Don’t scatter govt departments, agencies in Western North — Group

A group calling itself the Western North Solidarity Movement (WNSM) have petitioned the President to concentrate government departments and agencies in the Western North Region in Sefwi Wiawso for easy accessibility rather than  scatter them in different locations.

A statement signed by a four-member executive team, led by Lieutenant Colonel A. Aduhene (retd), said the current situation where government departments were in various places in the region defeated the purpose for which the chiefs and people asked to separate from the Western Region.

Currently, the regional feeder roads office is being moved from Sefwi Wiawso to Enchi, the regional health directorate is being sited at Bodi, education at Bibiani and the regional agric office at Juaboso.

The statement said the fragmentation policy was counter-productive and would take them back to the days when they had to travel long distances to access government facilities in Takoradi.

"What Bodi needs, for instance, is a district hospital and not a regional directorate," the statement suggested.

Long distances

It said the long distances separating the offices did not make economic sense as it had the propensity to drive away professionals and scare investors.

It said the decision amounted to establishing, for instance, the Ministry of Finance in Accra and citing another ministry in Sunyani, saying it was a defective policy.

While calling for all the regional offices to be centralised at Sefwi Wiawso as pertained in Accra with the ministries, the statement also urged the President to provide the regional capital with basic amenities similar to that of Accra.

These include good road networks, education and health institutions, good transport system including introduction of STC and intra city buses, standard recreational centres including a modern stadium, potable drinking water, affordable housing and establishment of law courts.

It also appealed to the President to rechristen the Sefwi Wiawso and Enchi colleges of education to "Akufo Addo
university of Western North".

The group further proposed that the Enchi College of Education be made an autonomous and separate university in the future.

Meet-the-Press

Meanwhile the Minister of the Western North Region, Mr Kingsley Aboagye Gyedu, has called for a massive and aggressive infrastructural development in the region, which was new, to bring it up to standard.

This, he said, must include the upgrading and re-engineering of some of the roads in the municipalities in the region.

Mr Gyedu, who is also the Member of Parliament for the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai Constituency, was addressing a maiden meet-the-press event organised by the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai Municipal Assembly.

As part of efforts towards making the region and its capital Sefwi Wiawso attractive and investor friendly, the MP said schools and hospitals in the town would be upgraded while accommodation would also be built for staff in the institutions to motivate staff on transfer to the region to stay.

Resource mobilisation

The MCE for the Bibiani-Anhwiaso-Bekwai Municipal Assembly, Mr Alfred Amoah, said the assembly had mobilised resources from funds it generated internally to complete a number of projects begun by the previous adminstration.

Among the projects completed, he said, were a police station, a slaughter house, the Bibiani Government Hospital kitchen, the Bekwai SHS Science block and a two-storey dormitory.

Mr Amoah said the assembly was making efforts to rehabilitate and reshape some feeder roads and construct CHPS compounds in the municipality.

He said a number of projects were being constructed from the One million per Constituency Fund and Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP).