The African Development Bank has approved a total of 50 thousand dollars to the Northern Development Authority (NDA) to conceptualize the ideas of the Northern Development Bank.
Speaking at the Launch of Northern Ghana Human Development Report 2018, in Tamale, the CEO of Northern Development Authority, Dr. Alhaji Abdel-Majeed Haroun said by December this year the concept of the Northern Development Bank will have been fashioned out.
He said the NDA has identified problems of Northern Ghana with solutions and will need more ideas from stakeholders to address those challenges.
Dr. Haroun mentioned grass production, communication, land reclamation, solar production, tricycle ambulances as some critical areas his outfit will explore as part of developing and fostering socio economic transformation of the Northern zone.
Dr. Haroun expressed NDA’s readiness to explore development challenges and opportunities in Northern Ghana as well as offer suggestions for poverty eradication.
He called for a coordinated stakeholder approach to address the numerous development gaps of the zone.
The Minister for Planning, Professor George Gyan-Baffour, called for attitudinal change of Ghanaians towards work, time, savings, enterprise, corruption and over-reliance.
He said not until all these value systems and attitudes are addressed, the economic systems, principles and theories needed to propel development of the northern zone will come to knot.
Professor Gyan-Baffour therefore urged stakeholders not to focus only on the hard facts and principles, but how to change the culture, attitudes, and values of the Ghanaian towards the right direction.
The Assistant Country Director of UNDP, Louise Kuukpen, said the launch of the Human Development Report on Northern Ghana will explore development challenges and opportunities in Northern Ghana as well as offer suggestions for poverty eradication.
He said the findings suggest that the pattern of poverty is changing and that though the northern zone has witnessed developments over the years, more efforts is required to transform the zone to achieve sustainable development goal one which aims at eradicating poverty in all its forms.
The launch of the Human Development Report on Northern Ghana report was dubbed. “Bridging the Poverty Gap and Fostering Socio-Economic Transformation for All”.
Story filed by Joyce Kantam Kolamong
