The Berekum East Municipal Assembly in the Bono region has held its maiden Meet The Press, with issues of deplorable conditions of roads dominating questions from the over twenty media personnel present at the event.

Though other questions were asked about other sectors, the concern of most journalists at the event centered on what government is doing to address the deplorable nature of roads in the Berekum Municipality to ensure accessibility and safety of commuters.

In response, the Municipal Engineer of the Ghana Highways Authority, Mr. Samuel Gyimah gave an account of the roads that have been worked on so far and the Authority’s plans for the road sector in the Municipality.

He explained that work will resume on some of the roads after the rains have subsided. These, according to him, include potholes patching and the reshaping of other roads, especially in urban Berekum.

Sino Hydro Road Project

The Municipal Chief Executive for Berekum, Mr. Kofi Adjei, said the Sino Hydro project for which Berekum is a beneficiary is on course and expressed the hope that the project will bring some relief in the road sector.

According to him, he had personally engaged the contractor working on the Berekum Seikwa road, Messers J.Adom who has promised to return to site.

Other questions and concerns were on government’s flagship programmes; the One-District-One-Factory, the Secondary Cities programme, amount of money disbursed under the One-Constituency-One Million Dollars, sanitation and other projects executed by the Assembly since 2017.

In his earlier address to the media before the questions and answers session, Mr Adjei gave an account of the stewardship of the Nana Akufo-Addo led government for the past thirty-two months.

On the Free Senior High School policy, the Municipal Chief Executive said the policy has resulted in increased enrolment in the three public senior high schools in the Municipality.

“It is worth mentioning that, the enrolment figures for the Free SHS in the Berekum municipality has increased from seven thousand, one hundred and seventy-three (7,173) in 2016 to eight thousand, five hundred and fifty-one (8,551) in 2019”, he emphasized.

Touching on government’s One-District-One Factory policy, Mr. Adjei revealed that a chalk factory is being set up in the Municipality, while work is about to begin on a cassava processing factory under the Youth Enabled One-District-Factory programme spearheaded by the Rural Enterprises Project (REP).

Under the One Million Dollar-One Constituency Programme, the Municipal Chief Executive stated that 4 Numver 10 seater Water Closet Toilet facilities have been constructed at Biadan, Mpatapo, Mpatasie and Kutre; while construction of market sheds at the Berekum Rawlings Park, drilling and mechanisation of one borehole at Nyamebekyere and paving of Berekum Thursday Market were ongoing.

The Municipal Chief Executive praised President John Agyekum Kufuor for initiating the Town Meeting and also applauded the current president, Nana Akufo-Addo, for decentralising it to the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies level.