TALENSI-NABDAM ASSEMBLY MOVES FORWARD (Daily Graphic Monday, November 10, 2008 PAGE 40)

TALENSI-NABDAM, one of the relatively new districts in the Upper East Region, was carved out of the Bolgatanga District in August 2004.
The district, with a population of about 94,650, has Tongo as its capital. The assembly has a total membership of 37, comprising 27 elected and 10 appointed members. It also has two Members of Parliament (MPs) representing the two constituencies of Talensi and Nabdam.
The district appears to have overcome the teething problems characteristic of any new establishment and is gradually moving away from a rural and deprived district into one committed to championing the developmental needs of its people.
Although the assembly is yet to receive its full complement of assets due it from the mother district, the Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly, it has managed to stand on its feet with its scanty resources.
Giving an overview of its performance over the past years at the third ordinary meeting of the second session of the assembly at Tongo, the District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Anaba Nabila, said with support from the central government and other development partners, as well as from its own internally generated funds, the assembly was steadily making progress with regard to the initiation of development projects.
He said about GH¢1,770 was allocated to the assembly as its share of the District Assemblies’ Common Fund for the year, saying that as of September 2008, about GH¢415,000 had been received from the administrator of the fund for the first and second quarters to finance the assembly's planned programmes and projects.
He said under a CIDA-funded district wide assistance programme, two classroom blocks were under construction, while furniture was being provided at Tongo and Asonge at a total cost of GH¢190,000.
The projects, the DCE said, had reached advanced stages of completion and that hopefully they would be handed over by the close of the year.
He indicated that a number of projects had been proposed for Tongo-Beo, Yakoti, Nangodi and Pusu-Namongo in 2009 to be financed by CIDA at a total cost of GH¢190,000
The Talensi-Nabdam District is noted for having a large number of children out of school, especially in the mining areas, due to lack of school infrastructure.
To address the problem, the assembly, with support from the European Union Micro Projects, has mobilised materials and logistics for the construction of three separate projects covering the educational and health sectors. The beneficiary communities are Bapelgu and Pelungu.
The DCE expressed the hope that the assemblymembers would mobilise the people to offer communal labour on the projects to ensure their early completion.
Mr Nabila said in order to boost economic activities in the area, the government had decided to construct a market complex at Tongo.
He disclosed that the disbursement of money under the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) programme had started, adding that a total of GH¢31,500 had so far been released for disbursement to 1,050 households in three communities.
The beneficiary communities are Shia, Baare and Yakote. Two other communities, Tongo-Beo and Nyogbore, would soon be roped in.
On health, Mr Nabila said although the assembly had fulfilled all the requirements for the establishment of a Mutual Health Insurance Scheme in the area to enable the people to access quality health care, a change in policy by the National Health Insurance Council had affected the implementation of the scheme.
He said currently the structures meant for the scheme in the district had been transformed into a zonal office operating under the Bolgatanga Mutual Health insurance Scheme.
He, however, called on the management of the Bolgatanga Mutual Health Insurance Scheme to fast-track the registration and issuance of identity cards to clients to enable them to assess the scheme.
From all indications, the young assembly is committed to ensuring that it provides the needed structures for the development of the area and it behoves all stakeholders who matter to join forces with the administrators of the district to achieve its targets.