The Minister for Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development, Mr Daniel Kweku Botwe has said the 11 Municipal and District Assemblies in the Upper West Region have been allocated a total of GHC48 million under Phase 1 of the Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion (SOCO) project for the year 2023.
The minister disclosed that the region benefited from 127 subprojects in the first phase and the money has been sent to the various district and municipal assemblies in the region.
He indicated that no contractor or consultant should complain about working and not receiving his money.
The minister disclosed this in his speech at the Upper West Regional Development Forum held at the SDD-University of Business and Integrated Development Studies (SDD-UBIDS).
“We have benefitted from 127 subprojects in the first phase for 2023 allocation totaling GHC48 million and this money is available my revered chiefs, it has been sent to this region.
No contractor or consultant will work and said we have done this work and we are waiting for payment, No! The money is available,” he stated.
Mr Botwe further disclosed that the region will receive GHC107 million under phase 2 of the SOCO project and the money is available.
“We have planned for the second phase allocation, that’s for 2024. Already what Upper West alone is going to benefit is GHC107 million. Again, this money too is available.”
Speaking at the forum, the Upper West Regional Minister, Dr Hafiz Bin Salih touted the achievement of the SOCO Project. He said the project is a game changer in the development agenda of the region.
“So far the SOCO project has become a game-changer in our regional development agenda and has trained district and community capacity building teams to assist in implementing the projects.”
Dr Bin Salih called for enhanced collaboration and partnership between the Local government ministry and the National Development Planning Commission in the implementation of the SOCO projects.
The project is contributing to the prevention of conflict spillover from the sahelian countries by improving the social and economic resilience of the targeted Northern Regions in the Gulf of Guinea countries (Ghana Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, and Togo).
In Ghana, the SOCO Project is being implemented in six (6) regions in the northern parts of Ghana – namely the Northern, Upper East, Upper West, North East, Savannah and Oti Regions. Forty-eight (48) MMDAs are benefitting from the project.