The beneficiary districts are Tamale, Tolon/Kunbumgu, Savelugu/ Nanton, Karaga and West Mamprusi.
Mr. Martin Esson-Benjamin, Chief Executive Officer of MiDA who inaugurated one of the schools at Yama in West Mamprusi District, explained that the rehabilitation of the educational facilities was in line with the aims of MiDA’s programme to ensure that, farmers’ children access formal school.
This, he noted, would enable the children to benefit from a sound foundation and give them the opportunity to develop themselves in future.
Mr, Esson-Benjamin stressed that the most effective way to arrest the poverty situation in the area was to offer quality education to the children.
He said MiDA intends to address the shortages of qualified teachers in its operational zones in the rural areas.
Mr. Esson-Benjamin explained that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) had agreed to collaborate with the authorities to address the problem of qualified teachers by releasing funds to sponsor individuals in the communities who are desirous to be trained as teachers.
He also indicated that MiDA was. in the process of constructing headteacher quarters. in all the schools to help improve teaching and learning "as the headteachers will stay near the.sehool to monitor the teachers".
Mr. Zakari Abudu, District Chief Executive for West Mamprusi District, commended MiDA for assistance and promised that the assembly would put in place a mechanism to maintain the facilities to prolong their lifespan.
Mr. Abudu, therefore, urged all parents in the area to enroll their wards in school and ensure their retention.
He said that it was the intention of government to improve quality teaching and learning in every part of the country, hence the assembly would not hesitate to partner any.development agencies
to achieve that goal.
Thirty-three basic and second-cycle schools in the three northern regions have been selected to benefit from the Global School Partnerships programme.
Both pupils and authorities of the selected scholls would benefit from several learning opportunities that would result from several their partnerships with school in orther parts of the world.
The acting manager of the British Council in Kumasi, Ms Bridget Konadu gyamfi, made this known in Tamale at a regional training workshop for 60 selected teachers who would facilitate the project in the Northern Region.
The Global School Partnerships (GSP) programme is a British Council programme designed to promote partnerships between schools in the United Kingdom (UK) and those in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
It is funded by the UK aid through the Department for International Development (DFID). The programme provides advice and guidance, professional development opportunities and grants to partner schools towards the devetopment of a global dimension within their curriculum.
It also helps to raise young people’s awareness of global development issues and equip them with the skills and knowledge to become active players in the global stage.
In Ghana, the British Council is implementing the project in collaboration with several non-governmental organisations.
Ms Gyamfi said through the programme some of the teachers would have the opportunity to travel outside the country for exchange programmes.
She said the training would also enhance the teachers’ knowledge in handling children’s affairs, as well as deepen their knowledge in internal affairs.
She said so far 280 schools throughout the country were benefiting from the programme.
The Director of Child Reach International, one of the implementing non-governmental organisations (NGOs), Mr Frederick Safo, noted that education in the Northern Region was not up to the required standards, particularly in the rural areas.
He expressed that hope that by linking these rural schools to schools in the UK, they would get some support to improve academic performance and the general standard of education in the region.
The Executive Committee of the West Mamprusi District Assembly has directed the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) to distribute all Ghana @ 50 paraphernalia still locked up in the assembly’s store room to people.
Mr. Sulley Abudu Zakaria, the District Chief Executive, gave the directive in Walewale during the Third General Meeting of the assembly and said there should be fair distribution of the items.
The items included 2,213 pieces of T-shirts, 1,071 pieces of base ball caps, 30 yards of anniversary cloth and 629 pieces of polo T-shirts left at the District Assembly’s store room in Walewale.
On the 2009 floods that hit the district, Mr. Zakaria said steps were being put in place by the assembly for NADMO to resettle the affected persons and called on NGOs and other donor agencies to assist in resettling displaced persons.
He said statistics from the district NADMO office showed that some 5,314 households were affected in 88 communities with a total of 2,198 houses completely destroyed.
Additionally, an estimated 43,824 people were displaced while 25,376 acres of farmlands were destroyed.
Five people lost their lives in the disaster and that though government had offered relief support it was not enough to support all the victims.
Mr. Zakaria said the Assembly was adopting a short to medium term strategy to integrate climate change concerns into its development planning.
He said the Assembly was developing a proposal for possible funding by the UNDP in collaboration with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC) to create a buffer zone along the banks of the river where farming activities had resulted in siltation and contributed to the perennial flooding.
Mr Zakaria said under the proposal economic trees would be planted along the river as well as a dam to serve farmers in the catchments area so that they would desist from farming close to the river.
On the internally generated funds, he said the district collected GH¢87,088.56 at the end of October instead of the projected GH¢109,550.
Mr. Zakaria said assembly members, chiefs, area councils and traditional rulers would from 2010 be involved in revenue mobilization.
He said as part of measures to widen the tax net, all donkey carts would be registered and taxed while fees would be collected on sheanut exports and money lending institutions in the district would also be taxed.
Mr Zakaria outlined the development agenda of the Assembly and stressed that infrastructure development in education and health institutions would be improved while roads linking farming communities would be up-grated.
He said evaluation of tenders were ongoing for the award of four road projects namely, the Kparigu/Shelinvoya 9.4-kilometer road, Walewale/Zangum 12-kilometer road, Kubori/Mankarigu 12- kilometer road and the Gbani-Kparigu nine-kilometer road.
Mr. Zakaria said some communities had been earmarked to benefit from Millennium Challenge Accounts protects while others would benefit from boreholes and the provision of small water schemes
Mr. Reuben Adamtey, Bolgatanga Branch Manager of the ARB Apex Bank has advised rural and community banks to check fraud in the banking industry.
"One serious issue that I want to draw your attention to is fraud, which has reared its ugly head in the banking industry especially in the rural and community banks", Mr. Adamtey said at the Ninth Annual General Meeting of the Bangmarigu Community Bank at Walewale in the West Mamprusi District.
He said it was necessary for managers of rural and community banks to conduct thorough background checks on persons who want to open accounts with their banks to ensure that they were not fraudsters.
He said the situation also called for caution on the part of all stakeholders to help curtail the activities of the fraudsters to bring sanity into the banking industry to enable customers to transact their business in a friendly atmosphere.
Mr. Adamtey said internal control mechanisms also needed to be strengthened to ensure that the various management of the banks did not recruit people with dubious characters to thwart success and also equip the personnel with the tools to work.
He said the E-zwich, E-fass and Cheque Clearing were technological innovations, which should compel all bank employees to update their skills in order to face the challenges ahead.
Mr. John Asabigi, Board Chairman of the Bank, said the 2008 electioneering campaigns impacted negatively on some aspects of operations of the bank since most customers were no more depositing money.
He said despite the abysmal deposit and savings culture in 2008, the bank forged ahead and made some gains in loans recoveries while purchase of treasury bills had also increased tremendously.
He said the outstanding loan portfolio between 2007 and 2008 showed an increase of 47.56 per cent from GH¢448,599.00 to GH¢661,975.00.
Mr. Asabigi said though the bank recorded net profit of GH¢68,554.00, this was 12.64 per cent below the 2007 figure of GH¢ 78,475.00, while total income increased by 33 per cent from GH¢237,026.00 in 2007 to GH¢315,429.00 in 2008.
He said the increase of 55.7 per cent in operating expenses from GH¢158,551.00 to GH¢246,875.00 between the two periods outweighed the gains in total income.
He said during the year 2008, the bank supported the Nalerigu Senior High School with books and the farmers’ day celebration and the Ghana Education Service in the district with funds.
Mr. Asabigi appealed to chiefs and land owners in the district to provide the bank with land to build its own structure so that money used in paying rent on the current building would be channelled in supporting local projects.
Rev. Father Moses Yaboah, Catholic Priest of the Walewale Parish who was the guest of honour appealed to management of rural banks to widen their net to cover deprived communities to ensure that farmers cultivated the habit of saving.
He said it was necessary to open agencies in the overseas areas of the district so that those who were reluctant to travel to Walewale to save or open accounts would so in their localities.
Mr. Gyimah Patrick Attah, Head master of the Walewale Senior High who chaired the function advised management of the bank not focus on competition but should focus on quality service to make more gains.
