"One Village One Dam" initiative was not a national programme - Minister designate

The Minister designate for Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Martin Adjei-Mensah Korsah, says government's "One Village One Dam" initiative was not a national programme in scope.

He explained that the programme was rather meant for regions in northern Ghana and that it was not a nationwide initiative to enable every village to benefit from it. 

The Techiman South legislator made the clarification when he appeared before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Tuesday, March 5 for his vetting.

During the vetting, the Member of Parliament for the Ellembelle constituency, Emmanuel Armah Kofi Buah asked about why the government has not been able to implement the initiative as it was promised and wanted to know what had become of the programme. 

In his response, Mr Adjei-Mensah Korsah said many people misconstrued the programme as national in scope, pointing out that the government was very specific about the initiative.

"One Village One Dam was relative to northern Ghana, not across the country," he explained and added, "oftentimes, people have sought to lump them together..."

Concerning the One District, One Factory initiative, Mr Adjei-Mensah Korsah, said the initiative was meant to transform the lives of the people at the local levels, noting that the initiative could be used as the basis to deepen local economic development efforts.

"...once people find it attractive and engage in, we can use that to transform their lives," he said, adding that all the government's flagship programmes, including the One District One Factory; Planting for Food and Jobs and Planting for Exports are all policies that could be used to develop the country's local economies.

The Appointments Committee of Parliament commenced the vetting of ministers of state and deputies designate presented by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo today for approval.