The Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion (SOCO) project has disbursed 164 motorbikes to all municipal and district assemblies in the Upper East region for monitoring purposes and to enhance service delivery at the local level.
The $150 million SOCO project is implemented by the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development in collaboration with the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC).
It is expected that the 5-year project which is funded by the World Bank will improve economic activities in six regions that are affected by conflict and violence, food insecurity, and climate change.
Upper East Regional Minister, Stephen Yakubu said the SOCO project goes to add to the many social intervention initiatives and projects the government is doing to provide jobs for Ghanaians. The minister who spoke to the media in Bolgatanga during a brief handing over exercise said the motorbikes will be used by facilitators of the project in clusters of the assemblies to ensure that some physical projects under SOCO are implemented appropriately to ensure the needs of the communities are being addressed.
“Each cluster has two facilitators and they will go round the district and make sure that the right thing is done with the projects that are going to be implemented in the cluster”
Out of the 164 motorbikes for the region, the Nabdam district received 8, Bongo 14, Kassena-Nankana West 14, and Bawku Municipal 16. The rest of the assemblies, Bolgatanga, Bolgatanga East, Talensi, Bawku West, Binduri, Pusiga, Garu, Tempane, Builsa South, and Kassena-Nankana Municipal would receive 10 motorbikes each. The remaining 2 motorbikes are allocated to the Regional Coordinating Council.
Mr. Yakubu mentioned that 132 community facilitators were recruited, trained, and supplied with motorbikes and laptops to ensure that they carried out the work without hindrance during the 5 years of the project.
Samuel Larbi Agarko, the SOCO Zonal Coordinator for the Upper East and North East regions said the disbursement of the motorbikes is a part of the project’s wider efforts to improve social cohesion and governance in the regions. With reliable transportation, Mr. Agarko stated that it will enable the facilitators to reach remote communities to effectively monitor the progress of work on the projects to ensure value for money.
On behalf of the Municipal and District Chief Executives in the region, Kassena-Nankana West DCE, Gerard Ataogye described the SOCO project as a game changer and promised to ensure that the motorbikes are used for the purpose.
The Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion (SOCO) project is being implemented in 48 MMDAs across six regions, namely – Upper East, Upper West, Northern, North East, Savannah, and Oti.
Source: A1Radioonline.com|101.1Mhz|Joshua Asaah|Bolgatanga|Ghana
This is a nice project that is coming to bring employment for they youngest generation but politician will come inn and be doing their own things