General News of Tuesday, 28 October 2003

Source: GNA

All districts to have information vans -Deputy Minister

Offinso (Ash), Oct 28, GNA- Mr Stephen Asamoah-Boateng, Deputy Minister of Information on Monday said the Ministry was making efforts to ensure that all the District Information Offices in the 110 districts are provided with vans to enhance their work.

He said the Information Ministry will soon take delivery of 80 new vans it had ordered with a Spanish grant, indicating that there are only 30 vans in the system.

Mr Asamoah-Boateng was speaking during separate meetings with Nana Wiafe Akenten III, Offinsohene and Mr Joseph Yaw Oduro, The District Chief Executive (DCE), as part of his tour of the Ashanti Region at Offinso.

He said the government was also negotiating with a German company to provide transmitters to the Ghana Television (GTV) to improve upon its transmission.

Mr Asamoah-Boateng said efforts were being made to improve facilities at the various media houses to enable them to perform their functions creditably.

On the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the Deputy Minister said it will be implemented as soon as the Legislative Instrument (LI) on the scheme was completed.

He gave the assurance that work on the LI was progressing fast and said he was optimistic that it will be completed in a very short time. Nana Wiafe Akenten was not happy that even though the Offinso traditional area had a large population, coupled with immense resources, very little attention was paid to its development by previous governments.

He complained particularly about the supply of electricity, which he said, benefited only a few communities and even there, it was irregular, while telephone facilities were also limited to a section of the township.

Nana Wiafe Akenten, therefore, appealed to the government to help regularise the supply of electricity to Offinso and its nearby communities.

Mr Asamoah-Boateng earlier visited the offices of the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), the technical section of ISD, all in Kumasi and interacted with the Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr Maxwell Kofi Jumah.