Information Minister Launches 2018 Town Hall Meetings

By Doris Sodjah

The 2018 National Town Hall Meetings have been launched at Dzodze in the Ketu North Municipality of the Volta Region.

The meeting, which is organized by the Ministry of Information in collaboration with the Information Services Department (ISD) and the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, is aimed at bringing governance closer to the citizens through open interaction between Ministers, Parliamentarians, opinion leaders and the general public.

It also creates a platform for members of a community to raise their concerns and discuss challenges about developmental issues in their communities. Government officials and stakeholders also use the opportunity to explain and project government policies and programmes to the citizens.

Delivering the keynote address at the launch, the Minister for Information, Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, disclosed that government would organize 152 Town Hall Meetings in the various Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies across the country by the end of 2018.

Dr Abdul-Hamid said government believed in an all-inclusive governance system and had, therefore, decided to use the Town Hall Meetings as a central part of its governance machinery to offer accountability and transparency to the people.

Dr Abdul-Hamid said the dates for the commencement of the 2018 Town Hall Meetings in the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies would be published in the major newspapers to give the general public prior information when it would be organized in their communities.

He urged members of the communities to fully participate in the Town Hall Meetings and contribute their quota to national development.

In a speech read on her behalf, the Minister for Local Government and Rural Development, Hajia Alima Mahama, reiterated government's commitment to ensuring that Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives were elected from 2021.

She was, however, quick to add that government was aware of the constitutional challenges relating to the elections and was working to overcome those challenges.

Touching on developmental issues in the region, the Volta Regional Minister, Dr Archibald Yao Letsa, disclosed that government, in collaboration with the Chinese Government, would construct two new schools at the University of Health and Allied Science in the Volta Region.

Dr Letsa also said government had made full payment to the contractor working on the Volta Regional Airport to facilitate completion of the project on time.

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