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Naming street and numbering properties is fast becoming the pre-eminent development challenge in Ghana but would be implemented in earnest to achieve the desired results, Local Government and Rural Development Minister, Akwasi Oppong-Fosu said on Tuesday. �Indeed, no one today can foresee the quandary in which our human settlement, especially the urban areas, will turn into in 10 or 30 years� time if efforts are not made to have a proper street addressing system,� he said at a stakeholders� workshop on the implementation of street naming and property addressing system in Accra. The workshop was to prepare an implementation plan of action with deadlines as well as financing mechanism to enable a nationwide implementation of the street naming project. He said national response to the issue had been done in a piecemeal fashion and that there had not been proper spatial reference to facilitate locations identification for purpose of social and economic activities. This, the Minister said, was seriously affecting revenue mobilization and activities of agencies responsible for public utilities, security and fire and ambulance services, adding that the cost of this to the nation is unknown. Mr Akwasi Oppong-Fosu said the Ministry was collaborating with other stakeholders and had developed a comprehensive National Policy Framework and Operational Guidelines to facilitate the implementation of the exercise in the country. The policy is aimed at ensuring harmonization consistency, efficiency and standardization of street addressing system in the various Metropolitan, Municipal, Departments and Agencies (MMDAs as well as increase revenues and improve urban management. The MMDAs are mandated by law to name streets and number properties, he said, and added that government was committed to ensure full implementation of the project. According to the Minister, Government would continue to strengthen capacity of MMDAs for accountable and effective performance and service delivery. The Local Government Decentralization Programme (LOGODEP) is supporting the implementation of the street naming exercise in Prestea Huni Valley district, Tarkwa-Nsuaem municipality, Sefwi Wiaso District, Bibiani-Sefwi Anhiawso-Bekwai district and the Shama District in the Western Region. In addition, Global Communities (formerly CHF) was also supporting Sekondi Takoradi Metropolitan assembly to implement the street naming project. He noted that Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly had also done substantial work on the street naming project, but said their work needed to be reviewed, as they started the project before the development of the policy framework and operational guidelines. The Accra Metropolitan Assembly through the World Bank�s Ghana Land Administration Project Phase Two, was being assisted with 3.86 million to implement the street naming and property addressing system in the Metropolis. Greater Accra Regional Minister Julius Debrah said he was looking forward to a day when a blue kiosk or Koko seller would not be used as a sign post for direction and challenged all stakeholders to work hard to finish the project before the stipulated timeframe. Mr William Hagan, a planning consultant, who gave an overview of the project, said street naming was a social project but had an immense economic overturns. He said it was also not an event but a process that could take an average of 1.5 years to set up with implementation as the sole responsibility of the Local Government. Mr Hagan said in moving forward with the project, there was the need to assess available information, engage stakeholders, develop a budget and design a media strategy to guide implementation. According to him, the engagement of chiefs and opinion leaders was critical in the exercise to get street names approved before using them. He said after the field work was complete, there was the need to develop a signage map to determine the arms that a pole bearing the names for a particular area should have and noted that updating the address system on a regular basis was key so that new properties were captured as spring up. He urged the Ministry to help the MMDAs to access grants to fast track their fields of work.