The flagbearer of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) John Mahama has promised to raise the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) from the existing 5% to 7% if he emerges victorious in the 2024 elections.

The former President made this commitment in Bole after casting his vote in the district assembly elections.

Mr Mahama emphasised that increasing the district assembly common fund would be one of the steps his government would take to enhance local governance.

“If God smiles on us, and we win the 2024 elections, we are going to take decentralization seriously, the rest of the ministries seriously, and the rest of the MMDAs that are still centralized. We are going to complete the decentralization so that we truly hand over power to the people at the local government level. Until we get our decentralisation right, Ghana is not going to go anywhere, and so we are going to take it seriously.”

“We are going to make sure that District Common Fund disbursement increases from 5% to 7%, as enforced in 2016, and that the District Assemblies Common Fund is going to be regular so that districts can take advantage of it to increase the pace of their development. So, for those who haven’t voted, please go to the polling stations and select your assembly members,” Mr. Mahama said.

The former President also urged the Electoral Commission (EC) to implement measures to prevent the recurrence of incidents such as non-operational equipment and delay starts, which were observed during the district assembly elections, in the upcoming 2024 general elections.