Ghana's development partners have been urged to contribute to the Northern Development Fund, recently established by government, to help bridge the development gap between Southern and Northern Ghana. They have also been asked to initiate pragmatic plans towards the development of the Northern part of the country. Mr. Mohammed Amin Adam, Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive, made the appeal when Mr. Dareen Schemmer, the Canadian High Commissioner to Ghana, paid a courtesy call on Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, the Northern Regional Minister, in Tamale on Tuesday. Mr. Schemmer was on a one-week duty tour of the Northern and Upper East Regions to inspect projects being executed by the Canadian International Development Agency. Mr. Adam, who represented the Regional Minister, noted that the North was far behind the South in terms of development, especially in the area of education. This, he said, prompted government to set up the Fund with seed money of 25,000,000 Ghana cedis (250 billion cedis). Mr. Adam appealed to the development partners to encourage private sector investment in sheanut business and the hospitality industry in the Northern part of the country to create employment for the people. He commended the Canadian Government for initiating capacity building programmes for the district assemblies and the provision of potable water in the rural communities. Mr. Adam noted that building the capacity of people and institutions was one of the surest ways of taking the people out of poverty. Mr. Schemmer said Canada was a long-time development partner of Ghana and would continue to assist the country to achieve its development goals. Source: GNA