The Ministry of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development (LGDRD) has presented about ninety (90) motorbikes to eight Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in the Northern Region.
The beneficiary assemblies include, Tamale Metro, Sagnarigu Municipal, Gushegu Municipal, Karaga District, Tatale District, Nanumba North Municipal, Saboba District and Yendi Municipal.
The Tamale Zonal Coordinator of the SOCO (Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion) Project, Mr. Samuel K. Forson, who made the presentation to the Northern Regional Minister at a brief ceremony, said the purpose of the donation is in line with the project implementation.
“As part of SOCO implementation, there is supposed to be a structure at the community level made up of a committee which we call Project Implementation Committee; along this are two selected persons [preferably a lady and a gentleman] who are supposed to be community facilitators, linking up the district assemblies to the community and the clusters.
“These people are supposed to be resourced for them to function and one of the equipment or tools they are going to be equipped with are the motorcycles. I am here on behalf of the Ministry to hand over 90 of these motorcycles, in fact, they are supposed to be 92; the remaining two are on the way to Tamale” he stated.
The Regional Minister, Alhaji Shani Alhassan Shani upon receiving the machines said it will effectively help the implementation of the project.
The Minister also cautioned the beneficiary assemblies to keep the machines in good condition to serve its intended purpose.
“I want to caution the MMDAs about the use and maintenance of these vehicles, these are tools that have been given to you to work with, make sure you keep them in good conditions, make sure they’re serviceable and use them for the purpose for which they have been given” he emphasized.
The Dean of the Metropolitan, Municipal and Chief Executives, Abdulai Yakubu, on behalf of his colleagues thanked the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development and the SOCO Project Secretariat for the gesture.
He further gave an assurance that the motorbikes would be put into good use to achieve the objectives of the exercise.
Meanwhile, the Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion (SOCO) Project is multi-country $450 million credit facility from the World Bank which seeks to contribute to the prevention of conflict spillover from the Sahelian countries by improving the social and economic resilience of the targeted northern regions and strengthening regional dialogue across the Gulf of Guinea countries.
About 48 Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies in the Upper East, Upper West, North East, Northern, and Oti Regions are expected to benefit from the program.
