The Ministry of Local government and Rural development says it is on course to meet the deadline given them by the President to complete the ‘street naming’ exercise. The minister, Akwasi Oppong-Fosu says plans are far advanced and his outfit is poised to deliver on promises by the end of the year.

According to him, the ministry has run a sensitization workshop and has trained the key staff that would play major roles in the exercise. The ministry has also introduced the satellite imagery system where maps would be used to locate the houses in the various cities. These cities would be grouped into zones to facilitate their easy location by the field workers.

He also said the Ministry has started the distribution to the various assemblies, the equipment needed for the exercise.

 “We are at the point of the supply of the equipment. I believe that by the first week in April, we should have completed the supply of equipment including GPS and scanners to the assemblies to start the process of digitization of the properties”.

He said “the officials will move into the fields with their digital maps. For instance, in this area, if someone has been put on ten properties, once they get into the area, they would know”.

After the completion of this work, the data would be made available to the assemblies, banks and security agencies.

In a conversation with Roland Walker on the AM Show on JoyNews on MultiTV, Akwasi Oppong-Fosu explained “there is a national task force made up of various experts in the field from town and country planning and survey department that worked on the policy. They have a mapping section. It is a home grown strategy that these people have brought out.”

Adding that “Street naming and property addressing is key to development in terms of civil and business registration. You need to have a location. And then safety and security of people in a country is also important. For developed countries, your address is key. You don’t have an address and you don’t exist. Every individual registers with the local authority and it is through your address that you are identified and given an ID card”.

Assemblies he said would have to finance the project themselves from the funds available to them from the district assembly common and the district development facility funds.