Ketu North District to Be Upgraded to Municipality — Kofi Dzamesi

The Ketu North District Assembly in the Volta Region has been named among selected districts in the country to be elevated to municipalities this year, the Minister of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Mr Kofi Dzamesi, has disclosed.

The minister, who made the announcement on behalf of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the climax of this year’s Deza (Oil Palm) Festival of the chiefs and people of the Dzodze Traditional Area, said the necessary processes had been set in motion to formally upgrade the area to a municipality.

Inaugurated on February 29, 2008, the Ketu North District was carved out of the then Ketu District under the erstwhile President Kufuor-led New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration, with Dzodze as its capital.

“Dzodze used to be a local council, it then became an urban council, which was later elevated to a district under President Kufuor. Today, under the Presidency of Akufo-Addo, I would want to  announce to you that the Ketu North District Assembly will soon become Ketu North Municipal Assembly,” Mr Dzamesi declared at the festival durbar last weekend.

The elevation, according to the Chieftaincy minister who is also a son of the traditional area, would ensure a lot more resources at the disposal of the assembly to undertake the various development projects in the district.

He, therefore, urged the people to repose maximum confidence in the government to deliver its flagship programmes and policies to the benefit of all.

Festival celebration

The Deza Festival, which was instituted some 16 years ago to revive the cultivation of the cash crop in the area, was on the theme, “The Human Factor, Key Ingredient to Positive Transformation and Development.”

Mr Dzamesi, in his address, entreated every Dzodze citizen to engage in oil palm cultivation since it had a lot of economic values to help improve their livelihood.

“Imagine the size of the oil palm plantation that would be in this area if in the last 16 years everyone here had cultivated an oil palm. So let’s all endeavour to have our individual cultivation aside the communal plantation,” he stated, and urged the district assembly to procure some seedlings through its Poverty Alleviation Fund to support the initiative.

Register your lands

The Deputy Volta Regional Minister, Mr Maxwell Blagodzi, who represented the regional minister, called on landowners in the area to acquire proper documentation for their lands to avoid unnecessary litigations.

He said properly registered lands would boost investor confidence in the area and also help the government to secure lands for its flagship intervention programmes such as the one-district, one-factory and the planting for food and jobs.

Mr Blagodzi assured the people of the government’s commitment to establish an oil palm processing factory in the area under the one-district, one-factory programme to add value to the crop.

The Ketu North District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Robert Avorgbedor, called for peaceful coexistence among the Dzodze Traditional Area and the other three traditional areas in the district so as to propel the needed development.

Source: Graphic