Mr David Akolgo Amoah, the District Chief Executive for Bolgatanga East, Upper East Region, has announced that construction work on a district hospital has begun in earnest at Katanga in the district as part of government’s agenda 111.
The hospital, he said, when completed would be equipped with modern facilities to provide quality healthcare to residents and urged stakeholders in the district to support the project to ensure its completion within schedule.
The DCE made the announcement at Zuarungu, the District capital, at the commemoration of Ghana’s 65th Independence Day celebrations on the theme, “Working together, bouncing back better”.
The agenda 111 was government’s initiative to construct modern district and regional hospitals in district and regions without hospitals.
The move is aimed at providing quality health facilities across the country to address health challenges and bridge the health gap among Ghanaians.
Bolgatanga East District was one of the eight districts in the region benefiting from the package and work has already started in some of the beneficiary areas.
Mr Amoah commended the stakeholders, particularly the traditional authorities, opinion leaders and landowners for supporting development initiatives of the district by giving land for the construction of the district hospital.
“Work is currently ongoing and we are grateful to the President for this live-saving project”.
The DCE explained that the government was committed to address development challenges of Ghanaians, especially the education sector and it was against that backdrop that the Free Senior High School Education policy was introduced to relieve the financial burden on parents.
He, however, noted that teenage pregnancy was on the increase in the district and was derailing the efforts made in the education sector especially in the area of girl-child education and development.
“Statistics from the Ghana Health Service and Ghana Education Service indicate a high incidence of teenage pregnancy especially amongst pupils in the Bolgatanga East District and this is putting us in a bad light country wide, it must be of grave concern to us all,” he said.
Therefore, he advocated urgent collaborative efforts from all stakeholders including traditional and religious authorities, and parents to address the canker and promote the rights of girls.
“In view of this, the District Directorates of Education and Health in collaboration with the District Assembly will be organising a Stakeholder engagement as soon as possible to brainstorm on this retrogressive menace for the girl-child and see the way forward. We need to rise up to the challenge and work collectively to address it,” he added.
A total of 25 schools, public and private basic, second cycle and tertiary institutions as well as vocational training institute joined to mark the day.
Source: GNA
