Mr Bukari Zakari Anaba, the Tano South District Chief Executive, has expressed appreciation to the chiefs and people of the district in efforts to spur economic growth and facilitate development in local communities.

He saidthat the commitment, unison and cordiality among assembly members and traditional rulers in decision making processes and the contributions of Dr Hannah Louisa Bisiw, Member of Parliament for the area, were highly appreciable and deserved recognition.

The Chief Executive was speaking to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview at Bechem, on the performance of the district in the first Ghana District League Table (DLT) 2014, launched by the Center for Democratic Development (CDD).

The Tano South District scored 76 percent among the top 20 districts in the region to emerge first in the DLT, a simple ranking tool of progress towards delivering development and key basic services in each of the 216 districts.

Aimed at strengthening social accountability, the DLT was conceived and developed by UNICEF and CDD based on the global practice of developing indices for measuring and monitoring progress.

Mr Anaba assured people in the districts that the second phase of the better Ghana agenda was on course and would impact significantly in their standard of living.

He explained that as a leading producer of tomatoes and other vegetable crops, the district assembly was linking up with local and foreign investors to see the possibility to process, store and add value to boost market opportunities for the farmers.

Mr Anaba said in the past six years, the assembly had ensured equitable distribution of project in the various communities through the recommended guidelines in the Ghana Shared Growth Development Agenda.

He said health, education, water, sanitation and security had witnessed drastic improvements, saying all the school under trees in the districts had been eliminated.

Mr Anaba said with the support of the Bechem Traditional Council, all the land litigation and chieftaincy disputes, which threatened peace in the area, had been resolved, while with support from the police and the District Security Council crime wave had gone down.

He said the assembly had place priority on how it could modernize agriculture so that subsistent and peasant farmers could be supported and engaged in commercial farming activities to enhance their economic livelihoods.

Mr Anaba said the poultry industry in the district was flourishing and advised farmers to invest in the sector.