The Bongo District Assembly in the
Upper East Region this Tuesday, presented cheques of various sums totaling 111,045.00
Ghana Cedis to some 100 beneficiaries selected from across the district. The
cash came from the Disability Fund component in the District Assemblies Common
Fund.
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| Bongo DCE, Hon. Peter Ayinbisa Ayamga delivering his address |
At a brief presentation ceremony in
Bongo the district’s capital, District Chief Executive Hon. Peter Ayinbisa
Ayamga disclosed that on individual basis, the beneficiaries were receiving
amounts ranging from 400.00 Ghana Cedis to as high as 3,000.00 Ghana Cedis per
person or group. He added that the amounts were reached after a careful needs
assessment and objective appraisals of the applications received as done by the
Department of Social Welfare and Community Development in collaboration with
the Fund Management Committee.
Hon. Ayamga who is also the New
Patriotic Party’s Parliamentary Candidate for the Bongo constituency in the
2020 general elections, further revealed that, the day’s disbursement was
actually the second to be done by his Assembly in 2019. He thus recalled that
just in July 2019, a similar disbursement package saw the distribution of GH₡82,103.00 to some 71 persons with
disabilities [PWDs] in the area which usually went to support the health and
educational needs of PWDs as well as, provide them with assistive devices and
support to undertake income-generation activities.
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| A cross section of the expectant beneficiaries |
The DCE emphasised that President Nana
Addo’s government was committed to creating opportunities for all irrespective
of social status, ethnicity and political affiliations and pledged that,
everything was being done to complete a resource centre facility for use by all
PWDs in the district. He appealed to the
beneficiaries to make very judicious use of the funds given them as they
themselves had indicated in their applications as a team will be following up
to monitor how they apply the funds.
Hon. Ayamga also used the occasion
to campaign for a “YES” vote from the public in the upcoming Ghana’s 2019
Referendum so as to pay the way for political parties’ participation in the
country’s local level elections namely, the District Assembly and Unit
Committee elections as well as in the election of Metropolitan, Municipal and
District Chief Executives as Ghana’s Parliament was also expected to vote
massively to amend Article 243 [1]. He stressed that, the country stood to gain
more in its decentralisation and democratisation efforts as against any perceived
demerits that may seem to exist.
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| Cheques being given out [Bongo DCE in black - Left] |
Meanwhile, Bongo District Chapter
President of the Ghana Federation of Disability Organisations, Mr. Clement Mba
in his remarks, thanked government for the upward review of the quantum of the
Disability Fund from two to three percent and appealed for a further increment
to about five percent since the numbers and needs of PWDs also continue to
increase with time.
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