Participate in town hall meetings to deepen local governance — Kofi Dei

The Central Regional Director of the Information Services Department (ISD), Mr Kofi Dei, has called on Ghanaians to be active participants in town hall meetings.

That, he said, would help deepen governance at the local level.

According to Mr Dei, such a platform is very important as it provides the citizens with a unique opportunity to better understand government policies and programmes that are being implemented for their benefit.

He has, therefore, urged Ghanaians to attend such town hall meetings to ask questions about issues that affect them and get answers from those in authority.

He stressed that through town hall meetings, governance had been brought to the doorstep of the citizens.

Town hall meeting

Mr Dei gave the advice while addressing separate town hall meetings in the Awutu Senya District and the Efutu Municipality in the Central Region.

They were organised by the Ministry of Information, in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development. There were presentations on the Free Senior High (SHS) Policy and Planting for Food and Jobs to explain both policies to the participants.

He noted that attending such meetings would enable citizens to decide on how they should be governed.

Removal of taxes

Mr Dei indicated that the philosophy of the government “is to remove some taxes to create financial freedom for private businesses to operate freely. This move by the government is a risk taken to support the growth of private businesses”.

He added that the ‘nuisance’ taxes had been removed to create an economic freedom for private businesses to grow so as to create jobs and reduce unemployment among the youth across the country.

DCE

The District Chief Executive for Awutu Senya, Mr Stephen Kwame Quaye, called on Ghanaians to be part of such meetings since it was an opportunity for them to make contributions towards the administration of the country.

In response to a question about the influx of Fulani herdsmen in the area, he cautioned the residents against confronting them, advising them to rather notify the assembly about their activities so that the necessary action could be taken.

He disclosed that the Awutu Senya and Agona East districts had been selected in the entire region to benefit from the construction of two new district hospitals.

MCE

For his part, the Municipal Chief Executive for Efutu, Mr John B. Ninson, called on Ghanaians to put the elections behind them and come together to deliberate towards the growth and development of the municipality.

He appealed to traditional leaders to deal with land disputes in the area to attract a lot of private investors into the area.

He said some private individuals had expressed interest in the municipality but the numerous disputes over lands in the area were pushing most of them away.