EU URGED TO STRENGTHEN SUPPORT FOR GHANA (PAGE 20)

THE Agbogbomefia of Ho-Asogli, Togbe Afede XIV, has urged the European Union (EU) to strengthen support for the nation to enable it to withstand the shocks of the worsening global economic situation.
He urged the various entities of the Union and the Union itself as a body to engage the government to explore how the EU could help it to meet its budgetary targets.
Togbe Afede made the call when a delegation of EU mission in Ghana paid a courtesy call on him in Ho last Thursday.
The delegation was on an exploratory visit to the Volta Region to access the socio-economic status of the region with the view to informing various countries to strengthen development planning with focus on the region.
Togbe Afede, who is the President of the Volta Regional House of Chiefs, said the government had expressed its commitment to fiscal prudence as a necessary strategy towards stabilising the economy in the face of rising inflation and depreciation of the local currency.
He said it had also expressed its commitment to ensure the growth of the economy by supporting the private sector, investing in infrastructure and developing the human capital.
He said the region faced a lot of development challenges, particularly in areas of education, health, water and sanitation, agriculture and employment generation.
The paramount chief added that “our agriculture for instance is still at the basic subsistence level and we are yet to see the growth of large plantations and industries that will provide needed jobs for our people”.
Togbe Afede said as chiefs, their people were highly expectant of bringing those possibilities to life but paradoxically with the advent of modern central governance, the traditional authorities had lost their powers of taxation and earned no royalties from the little natural resources.
He, therefore, announced that a US$250 million five–year Volta Region Economic Development Plan was to be launched on June 16, this year, with the view to upgrading the living standards of the people.
He said the Volta Plan was a contribution to government efforts to bring development to the people on the conviction that development was a shared responsibility.
In an address, the head of EU Mission in Ghana, Mr Miroslav Krenek, announced that a mapping exercise was to be sponsored in the Volta Region to determine the state of mineral deposits in various areas.
He said during the three-day visit to the region, the delegation would hold consultations with the regional leadership and a non-governmental organisation known as Volta Foundation and inspect business activities in the region.
Mr Krenek, who is also the ambassador of the Czech Republic, said they would visit a banana plantation and assess the possibility of introducing a fast-growing tilapia specie in the Volta Basin and also visit the Kingdom fruit project at Tafi.
The Deputy Volta Regional Minister, Colonel Cyril Necku (retd), thanked the EU for its assistance to the region and the nation for many years, adding that currently the sixth micro project for the region was ongoing at a total cost of GH¢3.2 million.
He stated that the Danish government, which is also a member of the EU, had been associated with the Volta Region and had provided intervention valued at GH¢17.3 million from 2004 to 2008.
He commended the partnership over the years and expressed the hope that more assistance would be extended to complement the government’s efforts at increasing access to and utilising good quality and economic infrastructure by deprived communities.