The Wassa-East District Assembly has organised a town hall meeting to review its performance in the year 2018 as part of measures to remain accountable to the people and bring governance closer to their doorsteps..
The meeting which featured the Ateiku Area Council is the first to be held among four Area Councils in 2019.
It was attended by Assembly Members, Traditional rulers, staff of the Assembly, opinion leaders, residents in the catchment area of Ateiku Area Council and the media.
Giving an overview of the Assembly’s performance last year in a power point presentation, District Chief Executive (DCE) for Wassa-East, Mr.Wilson Arthur touching on critical development and social issues, said,the Assembly had made giant strides in creating an enabling environment for investment to thrive in the District
He disclosed that five projects; the Wassa-East Quarry, an Oil Palm Processing Factory, a Starch Factory, a Seed Factory and a Rubber Factory were identified under the One District, One Factory(1D1F) initiative.
The DCE contended that more jobs were likely to be created out of the 1D1F initiatives to stem youth unemployment and alleviate poverty.
Mr.Arthur said the Assembly made Agriculture attractive as 1,060 farmers benefited from the planting for food and jobs programme.
As part of this feat, the Assembly procured 50 spraying machines to support activities of spraying farms in the District.
Under the planting for Export and Rural Development,430,060 cocoa seedlings were freely distributed to farmers.
Touching on Social Protection and Vulnerability, he said the Assembly was able to expand LEAP from 288 households in 34 communities.
On Education, Mr.Arthur said 6,955 children from 23 schools benefited from the School Feeding Programme, while the District registered 2083 candidates for the BECE out of which 2032 representing 91.1 per cent passed and enrolled in Secondary and TVET in the District.
Mr.Arthur added that the Assembly made special investments by distributing 5,100 school uniforms to school children adding that additional 5,000 uniforms were received and were yet to be distributed.
Still on education, the Assembly sponsored Mock examinations and a Mega awards day organised for teachers and also sponsored an Inter-District Sports competition at Axim where it emerged the best.
He disclosed that 20 additional ICT centres were built with 10 computers with UPS for each centre.
On Social Protection and Vulnerability, the Assembly was able to expand LEAP from 288 households in 34 communities and 260 persons with disabilities (PWDs) were supported with cash, food and equipment and additional 181 supported with start-up capital.
The DCE mentioned the re-shaping of the New Subri-Appesuma 3km road, the Sekyere-Krobo-Sekyere-Didiso 4km roads, Nyamebekyere-Rockshine 3km, the Kakabo junction-Kakabo 4km road and the Ahenkro junction-Ahenkro 2km road as thosel completed.
On health care delivery, Mr.Arthur said 29 health facilities including; private ones abound in the District, but the Doctor-Patient ratio was 1:2,400.
During an open forum, the Head at the Business Advisory Centre of the Wassa-East Assembly, Mr Daniel Adjei Sarpong said plans were advanced to establish two industrial sites for artisans in the District by the end of 2019.
