The Wa Municipal Assembly collected a total of GH¢1,130,065.02 as Internally Generated Fund (IGF) for 2018. The figure represented 66.3 percentage increase over the previous year’s figure of GH¢829,535 which represented 22 per cent.
The income was expected to increase by the end of 2019 as the assembly had already mobilised GH¢595,766.34 for the first half of the year and was anticipating to garner more.
Speaking at the first session of meet the press series of the assembly at Wa on Thursday, The Municipal Chief Executive, Alhaji Tahiru Issahaku, said revenue generation was one of his key goals when he took over the affairs of the assembly.
“Availability of funds was a vital prerequisite for the smooth running of the assembly, therefore we set out to overhaul the entire revenue generation machinery of the assembly to enable effective and efficient functionality”, he stated.
Alhaji Issahaku said the assembly put in place substantive measures to achieve the increment and these included a general sensitisation of the public, strict monitoring of revenue collectors, setting up appropriate sanctions and reward systems for performance in revenue collection.
Some of the measures included the establishment of a database on taxable items in the municipality and said “the outcome of the revamped and energised revenue generation machinery began to show as revenue collected doubled and replenished the depleted coffers of the assembly”.
Touching on other sectors, the MCE stated that the assembly through the Business Advisory Centre (BAC) trained 803 youth, comprising 201 males and 601 females on various artisanal skills and career vocations in 2017, 2018 and 2019, under 23 different modules. He listed some of the modules as soap making, poultry and guinea fowl rearing, shea butter extraction and traditional cloth weaving.
The assembly, he said, had also embarked on renovation of some health centres to promote quality healthcare delivery.
These included the renovation of the Sokpayiri Community Health Planning Systems (CHPS) Compound, construction of 4-seater water closet toilets with installed solar-powered mechanised water systems at the Charingu, Sombo, Dobile, Charia, Boli and Busa Health Centres, with support from WaterAid Ghana
and the construction of a CHPS compound with ancillary facilities at Tabiesi from the Assembly’s Common Fund.
The MCE hinted of plans to work on some road projects to further enhance the development of communities in the Municipality. He said they will consider the construction of a 3.1km road to link the Dobile market and the new hospital, a 1km road from the Dobile market to Mangu and a 1.25km road from the Kambale Central Mosque to the Dobile market and decorated with street lights, pedestrian walkways and bus stops.
Some media personnel raised issues about security and the opening of the defunct Wa Fruit Juice Factory which had been rendered idle for the past five years.
Responding to the issues, Alhaji Issahaku explained that he had raised the concern before the one district, one factory secretariat and had asked for assistance to revamp the factory, stating that “they responded favourably and said they would look into the matter, so we are hoping for a positive response”.
Present at the meeting were the Upper West Regional Minister, Dr Hafiz Bin Salih, head of departments as well as security operatives in the municipality.
FROM LYDIA DARLINGTON FORDJOUR, WA
