Prez begins tour of Upper West Region

President John Dramani Mahama has promised more jobs for the youth as the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) steps up the process to recruit 100,000 young people into various modules of the agency this year.

He said the re-engineered YEA was well placed to absorb the numbers into the modules and urged the youth to take advantage of them to earn a living.

During a courtesy call on the Wa Na and other paramount chiefs in the Wa municipality at the start of his “Accounting to the People” tour of the Upper West Region yesterday, the President said youth employment was key on the agenda of the government. 

The Upper West is the eighth region to be visited by the President since he started the regional tours.

Commercial flights to start 

President Mahama disclosed that commercial flights to the Wa Airport were expected to commence by October this year.

The airstrip is undergoing expansion and the President said by August, the terminal building would be completed, after which commercial flights would begin.

Infrastructural projects

President Mahama said the regional tours had revealed the massive social infrastructural projects that had been undertaken by the government. 

While expressing satisfaction with the level of work done so far, he gave an assurance that more would be done to improve the lot of the people.

The President, who had earlier inspected work on the Upper West Regional Hospital which is under construction, said the project was dear to the heart of the government, as it was key to improving health delivery in the region.

President Mahama being taken through the miniature design of the Upper West Regional Hospital. 

When completed, the hospital will have facilities such as six operating theatres, maternity and children's wards, ICT Scan, MRI and X-ray equipment.

The President said the project was about 75 per cent complete and by October, the physical structures would be ready, to be followed by the installation of equipment, while the entire project would be ready for use by February 2017.

An aerial view of the hospital project under construction

Roads

He said 15 kilometres of roads in Wa had been awarded on contract for asphalting overlay.

The Wa-Han road had also been awarded on contract for rehabilitation, he said. 

Besides, he said designing had commenced towards the dualisation of the Bole-Wa trunk road.

Government commended 

The Wa Na, Naa Fuseini Pelpuo III, commended the government for the numerous development projects it had provided in the region.

He, however, called for more projects, particularly good roads.

He described the chiefs and people of Wa as peace-loving, as they believed that that was a prerequisite for development.