Provide Banda district with resident doctor - Chiefs demand

The Chiefs and people of the Banda District of the Bono Region have appealed to the government to upgrade the Banda-Ahenkro Health Centre to a polyclinic status and post health personnel, including a medical doctor, to the district to improve on the health delivery of the people.

According to them, the continued referral of simple cases to Wenchi, which is about 40 kilometres away, coupled with the bad nature of the road, was having a serious
repercussion on the health of the people, particularly pregnant women with delivery complications.

The Dompimhene of the Banda Traditional Area, Nana Kunkunnku II, who made the call at the Meet-the-Press programme organised by the Banda District Assembly, said it was unfortunate that after almost 10 years of its creation, they continued to rely on the Wenchi Municipality and the Tain District for their basic needs.

“It is as if we are not part of the country notwithstanding the location of the Bui Dam which is providing a substantial part of the country’s energy supply,” he stated
and called for the rehabilitation of the Banda-Ahenkro-Menji road to enable the people to smoothly cart their produce to the neighbouring districts smoothly.
Nana Kunkrunku expressed concernabout the lack of access roads in Banda-Ahenkro, the district capital and called for measures to give the town a face lift to enable it to rub shoulders with other district capitals.

Meet-the-Press

Addressing the meeting, the Banda District Chief Executive, Ms Mary Konneh, disclosed that through the decentralisation of the government scholarship programme, 46 students were awarded scholarships to pursue higher education programmes.

According to her, a total of GH¢ 60,690 were disbursed to the beneficiaries, adding that in 2017, the assembly supported 25 second cycle and tertiary students with a
total of GH¢17,500.

Responding to questions from the press, Ms Konneh said the assembly was concerned about bushfires in the area which continued to destroy food and cash crops such as cashew and yam.

assembly had embarked on public education to enable the people to appreciate the negative effects of bushfires on both the local and national economy, measures had also been put in place for the identification and arrest of people whose activities got farms burnt.

Ms Konneh explained that in collaboration with chiefs, personnel from the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), would form anti-bushfire volunteer groups in the various
communities to play a watchdog role and also lead a public education crusade.

Infrastructure development

On infrastructure development, the DCE mentioned the construction of a three-unit classroom block, office and store at Fawoman, the completion of 10 lockable market
stores, office and restaurant at Bungase, construction of a fire station at Banda-Ahenkro and the construction of a six-unit classroom block for Faith Primary School, also
at Banda-Ahenkro, as some of the projects undertaken with various sources of funds in 2019.

She appealed to assembly members who were recently sworn into office to team up with officials of the assembly to increase the assembly’s internally-generated
funds for more projects to improve upon the living standards of the people.