Komenda (C/R), Sept. 15, GNA - With its fisheries development program, Kwesi Ahwoi, Minister of Food and Agriculture, has stated that the government would soon establish a modern fish processing plant as well as a market at Anomabo in the Central Region. Mr Ahwoi made these known in a speech read on his behalf at the annual celebration of "Nyeyi Afahye" of the chiefs and people of the Komenda Traditional Area at Komenda. Mr Ahwoi commended them for launching the "Komendaman Development Trust Fund" and urged chief fishermen, the Landing Beach Committees(LBC) and Community Base Fish Management Committee (CBFMC) to educate the fisher folks on the new Fishing Policy to avoid any altercation with the law.

He also praised the people of Komenda and expressed satisfaction with the efforts of the LBC's to save the profits from their operations for community development projects. He added that his Ministry was ready to partner the chiefs, the district assembly and the entire citizenry to ensure a meaningful development of the area. Mr Ahwoi stated that a Fishery Policy that would enable effective implementation of the fisheries law has finally been promulgated by the government and parliament and its implementation would help boost the living standards of fisher folks. Dr Joseph Samuel Annan, member of parliament(MP) for the area and Deputy Minister of Education, stressed that education was key to development and appealed to all parents to give priority attention to their child's education.

He urged adults who wished to acquire education to register with the Non Formal Education Division to learn how to read and write and also acquire vocational skills or a trade to improve upon their lot. The MP used the occasion to highlight a number of projects he had undertaken through the MP's Common Fund of the area which he said included the supply of 1,000 desks to schools in constituency to help abolish the shift system; supply of library books to all schools at Komenda; the sponsoring of 52 boys to learn carpentry and masonry at Takoradi and the supply of over 1,000 cutlasses to communities in the municipality at a subsidized rate. Reverend Veronica Essuman Nelson, Municipal Chief Executive of the area, stated that the National Population and Housing Census exercise was not being done to tax the people of the constituency and thus appealed to the chiefs and people to co-operate with census officials to ensure the success of the exercise. She explained that data collected after the census, would be used by the government to plan its development agenda. She appealed to people in the area to pay their basic rates regularly to enable the assembly to provide the necessary infrastructure for the district. Nana Kodwo Kru II, Omanhene of Komenda Traditional Area, in his welcome address, announced that a development fund for Komenda had been launched and appealed to citizens to contribute towards it. 15 Sept. 10