STAKEHOLDERS ENGAGEMENT ON HOW TO MOBILISE FUNDS TO SUPPORT INFORMATION DISSEMINATION ON EPIDEMIC DISEASES
The Lower Many Kr obo Municipal Assembly on 23rd June, 2022 held a meeting with its stakeholders at the Municipal Assembly Hall to discuss about how to raise funds to aid in information dissemination on epidemic diseases.
Speaking at the gathering the Municipal Coordinating Director Mr. Selom Tibu welcome the participants to the meeting and told them to fill free and asked questions relative to the issues that will be discussed. He used the opportunity to highlight some of the developmental projects the Assembly has done over the past Four (4) years. He said the will be a divergent views regarding the subject matter but decision should be taken, so that together we build the Municipality.
The Municipal Chief Executive Hon. Simon Kweku Tetteh in his speech also reiterate the developmental projects the Assembly has done over the past few years. He said Lower Manya Krobo Municipal Assembly is among the Four (4) Municipalities in the Eastern Region and Twenty – Five nation wide benefiting from the Secondary City program sponsored by the World bank. Hon. Tetteh said the initial funding the Assembly received was used to construct One Hundred and Eighty – Eight (188) lockable stores at the Agormanya market. The second funding was also used to construct 1.2km road from Kpanyas junction to Canan and a Business Resource Centre with an auditorium of Three Hundred seater Capacity. The Municipal Chief Executive said the next funding the Assembly will be receiving will be to construct some drainages and roads that are in deplorable state. He advice the participants to pay their tax obligations so that the Assembly will get more revenue to do more of the developmental projects.
Presenting on the epidemic diseases, Mrs. Selasi who represented the Municipal Director of Health presented statistics on the following H1N1, H3N2, RABBIES, COVD – 19 and CHOLERA from 2018 – June, 2022. H1N1:Thirty – Two (32) and Fourteen (14) cases was recorded for the year 2018 and 2021 respectively. H3N2: Four Hundred and Eighty-Seven (487), Seventeen (17), Forty-Seven (47) and Thirteen (13) cases was respectively recorded for the year 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. RABBIES: TWO (2) cases was recorded for the year 2019 and unfortunately both of them died. COVID-19: Three Hundred and Twenty-Eight (328), Two Hundred and Seventy-one (271) and Seventeen (17) cases was recorded in 2020, 2021 and 2022 respectively from a total sample of Five Thousand One Hundred and Forty-Four (5,144) collected of which Four (4) died. CHOLERA: No case was recorded for the years under review.
Mrs. Selasi said for covid -19 vaccination Twenty Nine Thousand Five Hundred and Eighty-Eight (29,588) people took the first dose, Eleven Thousand Two Hundred Ninety-Two (11,292) took the Second dose and One Thousand Nine Hundred and Fifteen (1,915) took the booster making a total of Forty Two Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety- Five (42,795) people so far vaccinated. She indicated some challenges such as poor adherence to safety protocols, lack of funds and inadequate performance of community surveillance volunteers facing the Health Directorate and pleaded with the stakeholders to help them overcome these challenges.
Mr. Benjamin Asah the Municipal planning officer in his delivery stated that, the Municipality is blessed with so many developmental potential and so there is the need to have a plan to make these potential reality. He said, recently a team went round all the electoral areas in the Municipality to collect the needs of the people from the various electoral areas to enable the Assembly have its Medium Term Development Plan for the next Four (4) years. Mr. Asah said, after the need assessment, cost was allocated to them and it pointed out that an amount of Fifty Eight Million Six Hundred and Fifty Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighteen (58,650,818) Ghana Cedis will be needed to provide the facilities the people are requesting in their electoral areas. He the therefore pleaded with the people to pay their tolls given to them so that the Assembly can be able to deliver.
It was agreed that as a stakeholders and development partners to the Assembly, fifty (50) Ghana Cedis will be levey among themselves to purchase fuel for the publicity vans, payment for community information centres and air time for radio stations to start with.