Kromase-Akyode (V/R), May 3, GNA - The World Bank is to offer a grant for the rehabilitation of 40 schools in the Nkwanta District of the Volta Region, this year.

Mr Ben Nyame, District Chief Executive, who announced this when addressing the triennial congress of the Akyode Youth Association (AYA) at Kromase, near Nkwanta, however, did not disclose the amount involved. He said the district currently has vacancies for 140 teachers for its basic schools and appealed to the Ghana Education Service to take steps to help fill the vacancies.

Mr Nyame, however, said the district assembly had decided to sponsor 50 teacher trainees as from this academic year as part of a long-term solution to the problem.

The assembly, he said, is to open a model basic school at Nkwanta with morale-boosting incentives for the teachers to attract high calibre public officials to work in the decentralised departments in the area.

Mr Nyame announced that the African Development Bank (ADB) has selected the district for a pilot project to assist farmers with farm inputs. He said the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom has a package for the district, especially the rehabilitation of the Nkwanta-Shiare road, as part of a programme to enhance tourism within the Kyabobo Range National Park.

Mr Gershon Gbediame, MP for Nkwanta, urged traditional rulers in the area to review obsolete customs and those that discriminate against women and hamper the education of girls. He expressed concern about the spate of chieftaincy and land dispute in the area and called for their settlement out of court to save scarce resources for development.

The Paramount Chief of Akyode-Guan Traditional Area, Nana Obeako Agyei II noted that the area lags behind in development and called for the provision of social amenities to help improve the living conditions of the people.

Mr Tom Brentuo, Out-going President of AYA, called on the youth to lead the people in the planning and execution of self-help projects to speed up development.