Minister Commends NDC, NPP

By Kwadwo B. Donkor
Wednesday, 21 May 2008

THE Upper West Regional Minister, George Hikah Benson, has commended both the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for the creation of the region and its accelerated development.

He said while it was the NDC that created the region, the NPP has since 2001, brought a lot of development into it.

Educational and health sectors have seen a lot of improvement, he said, and expressed the gratitude of the people of the region to the government for the efforts.

Mr Benson said this in an interview with the Times when he called at the Times offices in Accra on Monday to brief the paper on the week-long silver jubilee celebration of the creation of the region from this Friday, May 23 to Saturday, May 31.

He used the opportunity to invite all citizens of the region and the country’s development partners to the celebration.

Vice President Aliu Mahama, will be the guest of honour at a durbar of chiefs of the region on May 31, to be attended by Members of Parliament, ministers of state and members of the diplomatic corps.

He said the anniversary planning committee has also outlined a number of activities including an ‘Investment Fair’ to showcase the region’s development and investment potential.

"Even though the region is small in size, it is endowed with a lot of investment opportunities yet untapped," he said, and cited the huge clay and gold deposits as well as the Wenchiao Hippopotamus Sanctuary.

Other activities for the celebration are a beauty pageant and a development forum which will address the developmental needs and set the developmental agenda for the region.

In spite of the numerous achievements of the government in the region, he said, there are still some challenges to be addressed. He expressed concern about the performance of students in the region noting that the standard of education in the region is low, a situation he attributed to the lack of qualified teachers.

"Many professionals do not accept posting to the region and this is having a toll on the standard of education in the region."

To address this, he said, district chief executives have been instructed to sponsor a lot of teacher trainees who will return to teach in the districts on completion of their courses.