Agona West Assembly adopts strategies to shore up IGF mobilisation

The management of the Agona West Municipal Assembly (AWMA) in the Central Region has instituted a number of strategies to shore up the internally generated fund (IGF) to enable the assembly to mobilise more revenue locally to augment the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF).

Spelling out the strategies to achieve the target during the general assembly meeting of the assembly at Agona Swedru, the Municipal Chief Executive for Agona West, Mrs Justina Marigold Assan, said  some of the measures initiated by management of the assembly to enhance its IGF included the setting up of a revenue mobilisation team to complement the efforts of the assembly’s revenue unit.

Additionally, she indicated that a market toll mobilisation drive involving all staff had been ongoing for some time aimed at shoring up the assembly’s finances, stressing that “recent prosecution of property rate defaulters was also yielding positive results in relation to revenue mobilisation”.
 
“I am highly optimistic that in view of the foregoing measures among others being adopted by the assembly, it is likely that we will achieve our IGF target for the year” she said.

Finances

Touching on the assembly’s finances, she noted that for the 2018 fiscal year, the assembly estimated to collect an amount of GH¢1,819,799 as its internally generated fund but it was able to collect GH¢1,517,411.38, representing 83.42 per cent.

She added that a total amount of GH¢419,587.32 representing 22.8 per cent of the target set for the year 2019 was realised during the period under review, saying that out of the amount, GH¢349,442.70 was expended on the assembly’s activities.

She mentioned further that the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) receipts for the year amounted to GH¢664,732.06 out of which an amount of GH¢360,073.40 had been spent.

Mrs Assan reported that the assembly had received a total of GH¢655,961 as its share of the DACF/RFG which had been introduced to replace the District Development Facility (DDF) to fund various infrastructure projects in the municipality.   

Rural Enterprise Programme

The municipal chief executive noted that the municipality had been selected together with other 57 MMDAs to benefit from the Empowering Novel Agribusiness-LED Employment for the Youth (ENABLE YOUTH) under the Rural Enterprises Programme (REP).

The initiative is tailored towards boosting local economies and creating employment opportunities for the youth in the beneficiary MMDAs.

She posited that as part of the implementation of the initiative, a palm oil extraction factory would be established which would be managed by selected tertiary graduates after they had been taken through coaching and mentorship.

On development projects, she announced that the assembly had received clearance from GETfund to initiate procurement processes for the construction of a six-unit classroom block each at Ahamadonko Basic School, Nyakrom SDA School and Swedru Salvation Army School for the Deaf.

Work in the interest of constituents

Mrs Assan called on assembly members in the municipality to always strive to work towards improving the living conditions of their constituents.

She said as agents of development, it was incumbent on assembly members to guide and shape policies and programmes that would be initiated by the municipal assembly towards the transformation of the municipality.

She noted that “as MCE for this municipality, I will continue to count on each and everyone’s support as we make great strides in improving the well-being of the masses” and further admonished the assembly members to work together in unity to achieve results that would ultimately benefit the people they represented.