Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has, in accordance with applicable laws, sworn into office the governing boards of the Coastal, Middle Belt and Northern Development Authorities, and the Board of the Zongo Development Fund.

At a brief ceremony held at the Banquet Hall of the Jubilee House, on Monday, 11th June, 2018, President Akufo-Addo explained that the need for the establishment of the development authorities, as promised in the run-up to the 2016 elections, was based on the determination to begin a new paradigm of development in Ghana.

According to the President, the manner in which development has proceeded so far in the country has not addressed the fundamental problems of development that confronts our country.

“We had a lot to do with the profile that the development process has been undertaken up till now. We made, therefore, the commitment that we will attempt a new paradigm, a bottom-up approach to the development of our nation,” the President said.

He continued, “It will be required that the manner in which the capital expenditure of our various budgets has, hitherto, been spent, will be done in a different way. We will appropriate from the capital budgets of our country a certain amount of money that will go the Development Authorities to enable them to tackle the issues of development at the grassroots.”

The President noted that, fortunately, the Ministry of Special Development Initiatives has already done a lot of work in conducting a needs assessment survey across the 275 constituencies, and the same issues of road infrastructure, sanitation, and educational infrastructure, remain the basic issues that confront the various localities in our nation. 

“We are doing this because we believe that if these authorities succeed in their task, it will enable us to have a much more evenly balanced development of Ghana,” he said.        

He explained that the pledge of the equivalent of “one million dollars per constituency” will be the funds “that will be at your disposal, to be able to meet the objectives of the development authorities.”

On the rationale for the establishment of the Zongo Development Fund, the President explained that the need to make a special intervention in inner cities and zongos was as a result of the “manner in which the development of our nation had been organized”.

This, he said, necessitated the establishment of Zongo Development Fund, “that will also have as its targets the addressing of the specific needs of the community.”

He was confident expressed confidence at the quality of the expertise that have been appointed to form the boards of the authorities and the ZDF, and charged them to work together in undertaking their tasks.  

On behalf of the Members of the Boards, the Chairperson of the Coastal Development Authority Board, Mr Edmund Annan, assured the President of their commitment to the task as members of the board.

He said, “We accept that we cannot expect to do the wrong things over again and expect different results,” and called for the support of all towards the realization of the desired goals for the development authorities.