Abokyikrom (E/R), Oct. 11, GNA - The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Yaw Barimah, has asked Ghanaians to be prepared to work harder and overcome some the difficulties, if the country was to achieve the desired economic prosperity.

He was inaugurating a 16,000 Euro clinic at Abokyikrom in the Birim North District of the Eastern Region on Monday, which was funded by the STICHTING Kwahu-Ghana, a Holland-based NGO. The NGO had already supported the community with 71,000 Euros to construct a six-classroom block with teachers quarters, purchase low tension poles and cables for the electrification of the community and also provided funds for the establishment of a carpentry workshop for the training of the youth in the community to enable them utilize the large wood resources of the area.

Mr Barimah called on parents in the area to take advantage of the government's fee-free basic education policy to send their children to school and give them the necessary support to study hard. The Minister commended the people of Holland for their support towards the development of Ghana and assured that he would do all he could to ensure that electricity was extended to the area in the shortest possible time.

He also promised the people that he would put the construction of the roads in the area on his priority list for next year. The Member of Parliament for Abirem, Ms Esther Obeng-Dapaah, promised to provide learning aids to the local Kindergarten and to provide scholarships from her share of the MP's Common Fund to support all brilliant but needy children from the area, who would qualify for the university.

According to her, she had already taken the necessary initiative for the extension of electricity from the national grid to the rest of the constituency, which had not yet been connected and also for the rehabilitation of feeder roads in the constituency. The District Chief Executive for Birim North, Nana Acquah Frimpong, called on the people to organise regular communal labour to clean and maintain the structures of the centre.

The Chief of Abokyikrom, Nana Abankwah Ababio the Second, appealed to the Regional Minister to help provide nurses' quarters and nurses to work at the clinic.

He also appealed for the rehabilitation of the Gyamasi Number Two to Kyenkyenku road to enable farmers in the area to transport their foodstuffs to the marketing centres.