A former Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, under the erstwhile Kufuor administration, Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, wants the government to scrap the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA).
According to him, his tour of the SADA zones shows it has been a complete waste of Ghana�s resources and �it�s about time we look at it and get rid of it.�
�I went to a SADA afforestation site in the Salaga area�and what I saw was terrible. Trees were there and they cut the trees to plant something small�maybe they thought they were doing something right but I think the money that has been sunk into SADA is a waste of our resources,� he explained.
The strategy for accelerated development of the Northern Savannah was the government�s flagship programme to address the continuing high incidence and concentration of poverty in the Savannah Ecological Belt of Ghana.
It was commissioned with three fundamental objectives; reducing poverty, adaptation to climate change, thereby reducing the frequent occurrence of floods and droughts and building the human capital, economic infrastructure, investment and private sector base to manage social, economic and ecological transformation in northern Ghana.
Allegations of corruption, improper award of contracts among many others, have bedeviled the operations of SADA which was created to coordinate development in the northern parts of Volta, Brong Ahafo as well as the three northern regions.
Mr. Asamoah-Boateng is however, proposing a new development agenda the �Volta-Oti plan� to develop areas along these rivers which he says are impoverished.
�Indeed, the Volta-Oti presents us with a unique opportunity because it covers almost the whole of Ghana,� he said.
Addressing the media on his campaign, the aspiring NPP Presidential Candidate said he was fully convinced that the Volta-Oti development plan would help propel growth and development in Ghana.
�I think if you take that as a development plan we will have something worthwhile,� he remarked.
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