We can’t achieve sustainable development goals if we don’t decentralise

The Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin, has emphasized that the country cannot achieve sustainable development goals until it abandons the centrality of governance and embraces decentralization.

He made this observation during a visit by the Minister of Local Government, Decentralization, and Rural Development, Dan Botwe, as part of his inspection tour of projects under the Ghana Secondary Cities Support Program (GSCSP) currently ongoing in some municipalities in the Eastern region.

The minister’s visit aimed to inspect the progress of projects in three municipalities, including Lower Manya Krobo, New Juaben South, and Abuakwa South.

These municipalities are among the 35 across the country benefiting from the Ghana Secondary Cities Support Program.

“Centrality of governance is outdated, it’s not working. There’s nowhere in the world they keep doing that. The British left us a system in 1957, we were four million people then, and our population has ballooned to thirty-five million; that system cannot hold the thirty-five million so the minister has a difficult task”.

“Busia said rural development and Decentralization must work. We cannot remain here, you can’t sit in Accra and control a school in Tamale.

“The good policies that will ensure the country’s progress can’t be achieved because centrality does not show, accountability does not show, it does not ownership, it does not show fairness. The reason sustainable development is not working as much as it should is because there’s no ownership,” he explained.

In Lower Manya Krobo Municipality, the Minister inspected a fully completed business center, 188 lockable stores at the Agormanya Market, the construction of a culvert at Manaam on the Odumase to Kpong road, and the construction of the Atua government hospital road, among others.

In New Juaben South, the minister met with Daasebre Kwaku Boateng III, the paramount Chief of the area, Omanhene of New Juaben Traditional Area, and later inspected the rehabilitation of the Koforidua Jackson Park.

At Abuakwa South, the Minister called on the Okyenhene, Osagyefo Amoatia Ofori Panin, and later inspected the fully completed ultramodern 44-hostel facility with an auditorium for events and a canteen, as well as an ultramodern market with a shopping mall at the window level.

While the sector minister, Dan Botwe, expressed satisfaction with the progress of work in some areas, he called for effective collaboration between the assemblies and traditional authorities. The Eastern Regional Minister, Seth Kwame Acheampong, who joined the sector minister’s tour, attributed delays in raising contract certification to the slow pace of progress in some projects.

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