COMPLETED SOCO PROJECTS TO BE COMMISSIONED IN KNWD SOON 21st MARCH, 2024

The Kassena-Nankana West District in the Upper East Region is set to take over and commission some 12 completed projects in the coming weeks, for use by beneficiary communities under the Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesive Project (SOCO). The Assembly back in November 2023, handed over sites to contractors for the construction of various projects under SOCO, following successful community engagements and procurement processes.

SOCO, a 150 million US Dollar credit facility from the World Bank,  basically seeks to improve the regional collaboration, socio-economic and climate resilience of border-zone communities in the target northern regions of the Gulf of Guinea countries, including Ghana, that are exposed to conflict and climate risks.

 Hon. Ataogye, DCE
District Chief Executive (DCE), Hon. Gerard Ataogye who disclosed this in an interview with the Information Services Department, this Thursday afternoon said of the total number, 10 were already completed and ready for handing over while the remainder of two (2), were each over 95 percent complete. He revealed that the projects included market stalls in Sirigu and in Katiu, a Community Health Planning Service (CHPS) compound in Kandiga, bridges in Gonum and in Gwenia, a water system in Nabaango, completion of a new butcher shop at the Paga new market and extension of the Nakolo Health Centre among others.

Also among these SOCO projects include a community centre in Kayoro, completion of add-on structures at the Kanania CHPS compound and some four solar-mechanised water boreholes to aid dry season vegetable farming in the Kayilo, Biba, Navem and Kachonno communities.

The KAYORO Community Centre

According to the DCE, the SOCO project is unique in its approach to the provision projects to beneficiary communities in that, it uses the bottom-up approach where communities were sensitized to list their own priority projects and placing them on a scale of preference where the most-pressing of all, was eventually picked, agreed upon and then works  kick in. He added that, each project enclave had community project implementations committees and community facilitators whose mandate was to help monitor the works and also ensure that, the contractors sourced labour and other local job-hands from the communities.

 

Hon. Ataogye allayed the fears of other communities in the district yet to benefit from the SOCO Project explaining that, it is a five-year project which had just witnessed the first roll out and that with time, every deserving community will receive its due share of projects at their own choosing.

Market Stall @ KATIU Market

Over the past one month, the DCE led a SOCO monitoring team from the Assembly that spent several days moving across the district to all SOCO project sites during which, engagements were held with contractors and the community leaderships regarding progress of work, challenges encountered in the execution of works and other matters arising out of the implementation process. 

The DCE held, that the regular monitoring and site meetings were very necessary as that created the platform for settling of differences between the contractors and the communities as well as, ensuring that the projects were being constructed according to specifications and delivery schedules. He noted that one issue that came up was hitches in processing the payments for some of the community facilitators as a few of them had variations in their names as they appeared on the Ghana Card and other documentations but that, this has since been sorted out.

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

MoFA RECEIVES APPROVAL TO SPEND & RECRUIT IN FIGHT AGAINST HPAI 25th OCTOBER, 2021

Image
  Ghana’s Cabinet has given approval for the release of 43,984,017.70 Ghana Cedis to the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in its efforts geared at combating the current outbreaks of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza [HPAI] in the country. The Minister for Food and Agriculture Dr. Owusu Afriyie Akoto, who announced this at a press briefing held this Monday at the ministry, added that the approval came on the back of a proposal his ministry submitted to Cabinet on the subject matter. He said the approval also empowered the ministry to recruit 1,100 veterinary professionals to augment the staff numbers of the Veterinary Services Directorate [VSD] across the country so as to ensure the effective containment of the influenza. Dr. Akoto, Agric Minister making his presention   According to Dr. Akoto, Cabinet additionally directed that 50 percent of the 1,100 professionals representing 550 of them, should be recruited immediately whilst the remaining 50 percent is to be recruited over a
Read more

MoGCSP & ISD TRAIN ISD OFFICERS FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION ON SWCES 15th FEBRUARY, 2024

Image
A day’s training workshop for the roll out of a pending nation-wide public education and sensitization campaign on the Single Window Citizens Engagement Service [SWCES], has taken place in Tamale, the Northern Regional capital, this Thursday, February 15, 2024. The training workshop was organized by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection [MoGCSP] in collaboration with the Information Services Department [ISD]. Group Picture; Participants & Trainers   Some eight Regional Information Officers and their respective metropolitan, municipal as well as district information officers, were the main participants in the training as these officers are the professionals clothed with the requisite skills and ground experience to execute the public education and sensitization campaign on the SWCES in the coming weeks. The said ISD officers were drawn from the Upper East, the Ahafo, Bono and Bono East Regions. The rest came from the Northern Region, Upper West, Savannah and North E
Read more

OVER 10 PROJECT SITES HANDED OVER TO CONTRACTORS IN KWD UNDER SOCO 19th NOV., 2023

Image
A number of sites earmarked for the construction of several projects ranging from market stalls, CHPS compounds, Culverts, mechanized boreholes to a butcher shop and more, have been handed over to contractors for execution across several communities in the Kassena-Nankana West District of the Upper East Region. Kassena-Nankana West District Chief Executive [DCE], Hon. Gerard Ataogye who led a team including his District Coordinating Director, Mr. Abubakari Amadu and other technical officers to hand over these sites to contractors, disclosed that all these projects fall under the SOCO Sub-Projects. The SOCO Project is a 150 million US-Dollar World Bank loan facility procured by the Government of Ghana, for the implementation of the Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion Project [SOCO] and Kassena-Nankana West is one of the 48 beneficiary metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies in the six project regions. Hon. Ataogye Speaking To Nabango Community Leaders The regions a
Read more