<<Print>>

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has directed Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) to combine the implementation of the National Digital and Property Addressing System (GhanaPostGPS) with the National Street-Naming Exercise.

This is to improve on revenue mobilisation and, subsequently, increase the Internally Generated Funds (IGFs) of the various MMDAs to lower their overreliance on the District Assemblies’ Common Fund.

Hajia Alima Mahama, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, who announced the President’s directive on Tuesday, said the effective implementation of the programmes would open up the local economy for the MMDAs to generate the required revenue needed for development.

President Akufo-Addo launched GhanaPostGPS, a modern approach to allocating addresses within a defined space with the aid of the latest geo-coding technology, in 2017.

As a practical manifestation of another 2016 campaign promise of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), GhanaPostGPS, among others, seeks to formalise the Ghanaian economy and transform and improve the operations of business activities in the country.

Hajia Mahama was speaking at the opening session of a day’s sensitisation workshop for the municipal and district assemblies in the Brong Ahafo Region, in Sunyani.

Her ministry, in collaboration with the Land and Spatial Planning Authority (LUSPA), formerly the Town and Country Planning Department, and Ghana Post organised the workshop, attended by municipal and district chief executives, co-ordinating directors and planning officers.

Hajia Mahama said there is the need for the MMDAs to identify their economic potentials and grow them, especially within the framework of government’s commitment to formalising the economy to improve e-commerce.

She said government believes that effective street naming and digitisation of properties is a catalyst for achieving greater development for Ghanaians.

Hajia Mahama said the success of, particularly, the GhanaPostGPS programme largely depends on the commitments of the MMDAs to its implementation, and charged the assemblies to take ownership of the effort and include it in their budget and development plans.

She urged the various Regional Co-ordinating Councils to also provide the requisite support for the effective implementation of the programmes to yield useful outcomes.

Mr Kwaku Asomah-Cheremeh, the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, said the informal nature of Ghana’s economy has been a major constraint to development efforts, thereby affecting the nation’s ability to broaden her tax base, deepen and widen financial inclusion, and deliver services to those most in need.

To create a formal economy, the Regional Minister said, it is imperative to provide a platform for easy data generation, as well as identification of location of homes and offices.

Successful implementation of the GhanaPostGPS programme, Mr Asomah-Cheremeh said, would help minimise the use of landmarks as a traditional means of giving directions to various locations in the country.

It would also lower the cost of doing business and enable security agencies to easily identify and deal with crime and other security situations.