GOVT RELEASES GH¢2.2 BILLION FOR SCHOOL BUILDINGS (GRAPHIC NSEMPA, PAGE 10, JUNE 21, 2010)

By Samuel Duodu, Nkoranza.

The government has released a total of Gh¢2.2 billion for the construction of additional classrooms in 20 Senior High Schools (SHS) in the Brong Ahafo Region
This is to facilitate the implimentation of the three- year SHS programme scheduled to take-off in September this year.
The Deputy Brong Ahafo Minister, Mr Eric Opoku, who disclosed this, further revealed that an amount bigger than the GH¢ 2.2 billoin was soon to be released to take care of expansion works in the rest of the SHS in the region.
“As I am speaking now the contractors are on site and have started work to enable the first year students who would begin the three year SHS programme in September to have classrooms and other infrastructure for the smooth take off of the programme”, he stressed.
Mr Opoku said this when he led the Second Lady, Mrs Lordina Dramani Mahama’s entourage to pay a courtesy call on the Omanhene of the Nkoranza Traditional Area, Okatakyie Agyeman Kudom IV, at his palace at Nkoranza in the Brong Ahafo Region over the weekend.
The visit by the wife of the Vice-President to the Nkoranzahene’s palace was a prelude to the donation of medical equipment by Mrs Mahama’s organisation, Alternative Source of Income Programme (ASOP) to three health facilities namely, St Theresa’s Hopital, Busunya Health Centre and the Kintampo South Government Hospital in the Nkoranza South, Nkoranza North and Kintampo South Districts in the Brong Ahafo Region.
Politically or administratively, the beneficiary health institutions are in three separate districts but traditionally they are in the Nkoranza Traditional Area of the region.
Mr Opoku, in response to an appeal by the Nkoranzahene for the Nkoranza-Kintampo, Nkoranza-Atebubu  and Nkoranza-Busunya roads, as well as the Nkoranza township roads to be rehabilated to ensure smooth transportation of people and farm produce during the rainy season, said those roads were on the priority list of the government and would be given the needed attention immediately.
He therefore called on the chiefs and people of Nkoranza to exercise restraint, as the government was determined to excute all development projects due to the area before the end of its first four-year term.
Mr Opoku also appealed to all traditional authorities in the region to mobilise their people and ensure that they participated in the forthcoming national census programme to ensure its success.
Mrs Mahama, in a brief remark, said her organisation had as its objective the need to champion the welfare of the vulnerable in the society, especially widows and orphans and the donation of the medical equipment to the three beneficiary health institutions was aimed at helping to improve the quality of health-care delivery in the country.
She called on Ghanaians to be patient with the government and rather rally behind it to achieve its ‘Better Ghana agenda’.
The Omanhene of Nkoranza,  Okatakyie Kudom, in his remarks, also appealed for the elevation of the Nkoranza South District to the status of a municipality by the government and also ensure the tarring of all roads linking Nkoranza to the other districts, especially Kintampo, Busunya and Atebubu, as well as the Nkoranza township roads.
He thanked the Second Lady for her gesture and appealed for more assistance for the health facilities in his traditional area.