‘Government Is Committed To Ensuring Proper Mapping Of Cities’

Mr Kwesi Boateng Adjei, a Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, has reiterated government’s commitment to ensuring proper mapping of cities and towns.

This, he said, would be done through national digitisation of properties and addressing system to ensure easy navigation and relevant spatial data for effective service delivery.

He said this had tremendous implications in terms of revenue mobilisation for Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) and was a critical success factor for effective development and improved standards of living.

Mr Adjei was addressing metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives, their coordinating directors and other officers at a sensitisation workshop on the National Digital Addressing System.

It was organised by the Urban Development Unit of the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development (MLG&RD) in collaboration with the Land Use and Spatial Planning Authority (LUSPA) at Koforidua in the Eastern Region.

The workshop is part of government’s renewed effort at ensuring the completion of the Street Naming and Property Addressing system, especially the digitisation of property towards effectively opening up the economy and supporting metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies (MMDAs) to improve revenue generation.

It is to enable participants to understand the expected activities and outcomes to roll-out the Street Naming and Property Addressing exercise and also prepare all MMDAs to continue and successfully deploy the Ghana Post GPS.

He said revenue generation gave MMDAs and their managers the required resources to deliver social amenities such as schools, health facilities, improved sanitation, modern markets and lorry parks and the overall ability to build resilient cities.

Mr Adjei, who is also the Member of Parliament for New Juaben North, said the MLG&RD was keen on sensitising all implementing stakeholders to complete the on-going street naming and house numbering and embrace the digital addressing and the Ghana Post GPS.

He said the vision of the initiative was to achieve a nationwide use of spatial database information for good governance and socio-economic development through the development, management and dissemination of property addressing system linked with postal code and to ensure total access to high-quality geographic information and services for individuals and organisations.

The Deputy Minister said the initiative was aimed at improving quality and reducing costs related to geographic information, reducing duplication of efforts among agencies and to making geographic data more accessible to the public.

He said by doing so, MMADs are expected to develop databases that would facilitate the overall formalisation of Ghana’s economy at all levels.

He urged the Regional Coordinating Council to provide the regional LUSPA and MMDAs with the requisite support to effectively assist in executing the agenda.

Mr Eric Kwakye Darfour, the Eastern Regional Minister, said the street naming and digital addressing initiative formed part of formalising the economy for revenue mobilisation, harnessing the potentials of the country and addressing development challenges.

He said there was more to be done on the implementation process and urged all MMDAs in the Region to show leadership by taking ownership of the initiative in the various MMDAs.

Officials of the Ghana Post were present to make some presentations and answer some concerns raised by the participants on the GPS system manage by the Ghana Post.

The officers were encouraged to acquired the digital system to enhance their activities in commerce, business and administrative work in their various MMDAs.