Minister encourages communities to own developmental needs

A government official on Friday underscored the importance of encouraging communities to own their developmental needs and to use resources they receive to complement their Internally-Generated Funds (IGF). Mr Akwasi Opong-Fosu, Minister of Local Government Rural Development who made the remarks stressed: �We need to look closely at having communities to take ownership of developmental needs and when support comes from the various transfer of resources to complement the assemblies�. �The IGF will go a long way in making the communities sustainable.� He was speaking to journalists at the end of an inspection of a number of completed physical infrastructure sub-projects under the Rural Community Poverty Alleviation Pilot Project (RuCPAPP) in the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District of the Central Region. Ghana in 2010 signed a co-operation agreement with China through the Foreign Capital Projects Management Centre to implement projects in the areas of micro-credit schemes, to be run by community members, infrastructure and roads and drainage construction in three communities in the District. The communities include the Breman Kokoso, Amanfopong and Fosu Ansah. The goal of the RuCPAPP is to achieve sustainable transformation of the physical, social and economic conditions of beneficiary communities. Mr Opong-Fosu expressed appreciation to the Chinese Government and other developmental partners for their kind gesture in rolling out the pilot projects. Mrs Georgina Nkrumah-Aboah, Member of Parliament for Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa Constituency said the pilot project had already impacted positively in the lives of the people. She said construction of classroom blocks under the pilot project in particular had �enormously� attracted and increased pupils' attendance.