Accra, Dec 07, GNA - Ghana News Agency (GNA) should be strengthened to play its role as a reliable central source of news to empower Ghanaians on their journey to development, Mr Asamoah Boateng, Member for Mfansteman West, said Wednesday. "In our quest to satisfy the various consumers of news in our present democratic environment, we should have a centre source that would guide and cleanse the information we feed on and I think GNA has been cut out for that purpose"

The Member, who is the Deputy Minister of Tourism and the Modernisation of the Capital City, was contributing to a motion for the approval of 162,933 million cedis for the Service of the Ministry of Information. Ghana News Agency had a share of 8 billion for the fiscal year of 2006. He said GNA's role could not be under estimated as it has become even more crucial at a time when the media is becoming more diverse and plural.

According Mr Asamoah Boateng, the national wire service had been under resourced for a long time and that was having effect on its capacity to perform as its should. Mr Haruna Iddrissu, Minority Spokesman on Communication, called for more resources for the Ghana News Agency. He said:" How can a GNA man come to Bunkprugu to write about the people and what they do when he has no vehicle and no resource to move about." He asked that government made HIPC allocation to strengthen the national wire service.

Mr Dan Botwe assured the House that GNA would be given the needed resources adding that in 2006 each of the regional offices of the agency would have vehicles. The Ghana News Agency was created in 1957 to run as a national agency of Ghana but has over the years been starved of the resources partly due to the ailing national economy and also due to the lack of appreciation of its role in national development.