The newly enskined Paramount Chief of the Navrongo Traditional area, Dennis Aneakwoa Belinia Adda , has announced that plans are far advanced by the Traditional Council to outdoor it’s vision of progress and development of the traditional area.

The Paramount Chief made the announcement on Wednesday when a team of “ Our Lady of Mercy Community Services” (OLAM), an NGO operating in Northern Ghana aimed at empowering the underprivileged communities, women and children towards poverty reduction and community development paid him and his elders visit to introduce the operations of the NGO to the traditional council and to solicit for support.

The Paramount Chief stated that he would lead the traditional council to outdoor the vision of progress and development of the traditional area on 31st December which would coincide the celebration o f the “ Fao festival “, celebrated by the Chiefs and People of the Navrongo Traditional area.

Pe Adda who mentioned the establishment of Educational Endowment Fund among the key areas of the vision of progress and development of the traditional area, stated the Council would collaborate with the Municipal Assembly , Corporate bodies, Development partners and NGOs such as OLAM to implement the goals and visions of the traditional council.

He disclosed that the area was endowed with a lot of potentials and mentioned that apart from the area being noted for its largest white clay deposits which could be tapped for molding bricks, tiles and pottery, the area was also endowed with the Tono Irrigation Dam facility which, he noted, could also be exploited for rice, tomato, onions, pepper, garden eggs, fish farming among others.

“The Navrongo Traditional Council is collaborating with the Municipal Assembly to establish fish farming and vegetable farming to ensure not only the harvesting of large quantity of fish but also quality”, he stressed.

He said the traditional council was also in talks with the Municipal Assembly and other development partners to establish cold storage for vegetables and fruits preservation and appealed to all and sundry to patronize the incoming 'Fao' festival and to contribute to supporting the traditional council to implement its development agenda captured by the traditional council vision.

The Paramount chief who lauded the efforts of OLAM for empowering the youth with the requisite and manpower skills in the traditional area, stated that not only would such training help complement the government’s efforts of providing employment for the youth but it would also prevent the image of the traditional area from being dented since the employable skills acquired by the youth would help curb stealing in the area.

Briefing the newly enskined Paramount chief about the background of OLAM , the Project Director of OLAM, Mr Emmanuel Atiiga, explained that OLAM, which had been registered as NGO, has been operating in Northern Ghana since 2005 with the aim of empowering the underprivileged communities, women and children towards poverty reduction and community development.

He told the traditional council that his outfit with funding support from the Open Society Initiative for West Africa (OSIWA- SENEGAL) and the Germany Embassy to Ghana had over the years collaborated with the Department of Social Welfare and Community Development in offering training in various vocational modules such as batik, tie and dye, soap making, beads making, dressing making and Information Communication Technology (ICT).

“Most of the beneficiaries who were dropouts of school and past students of Junior and Senior High Schools and could not continue their education as result of financial challenges were trained in batik, tie and dye, soap making, beads making, dressing making and Information Communication Technology (ICT)” , the Project Coordinator stressed.

The Project Director who indicated that most of the beneficiaries had set up their own shops and employed others,indicated that apart from the skills training programmes, the beneficiaries also received start-up capitals in the forms of equipment and also took home certificates all provided by the training centre.

He stated that by the close of December 2018, the training Centre of OLAM would again be graduating a number of the youth in the Kassena-Nankana Municipal and Kassena-Nankana West District in addition to them receiving start-up capitals in the forms of equipment and certificates