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Mr Kofi Opoku Manu, Ashanti Regional Minister, has emphasized the need for the citizenry to show keen interest and become actively involved in decisions that affect the development of their localities. He said it would strengthen the local governance system when encouraged. Mr Opoku-Manu was speaking at the opening of a knowledge sharing and capacity building workshop on the country's political decentralization in Kumasi on Friday. Media practitioners and officials of non governmental organizations drawn from the Ashanti and Brong-Ahafo attended the workshop. "Decentralization and Local Governance: The Role of Civil Society and NGOs in Ghana" was the theme and held under the auspices of the Local Governance Network (LOGNET), an NGO. Mr Opoku-Manu said the District Assembly concept has helped to bring significant improvement to the lives of the people. Additionally, he said, it had deepened the country's democracy through grassroots participation. The Regional Minister, however, acknowledged that there could still be some fine-tuning to enhance performance. Mr Douglas Quartey, acting National Coordinator of the LOGNET, said the assemblies were helping to promote good governance by creating platform for the people to participate in national development. He was not happy that there was greater level of central government control at the local level and indicated that that was unhelpful for effective decentralization. He appealed to the media to partner civil society and NGOs to whip up enthusiasm in the assembly concept. Mr Christopher Dapaah, LOGNET Zonal Coordinator in Ashanti and Brong Ahafo, advised the participants to use their acquired knowledge to help improve the local governance.