Presiding members in the Northern Region have expressed appreciation to Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia over his manifesto promise to institute a fund dedicated to the development of electoral areas.

At a meeting of presiding members held recently, the region’s presiding members lauded the initiative as visionary, saying it will catalyze Ghana’s development and quickly help bridge the gap between the rural and urban areas.

“This approach is definitely a bottom-up one that will be a game changer for the country’s development after years of using the trickle-down approach only resulted in a lopsided development that has mainly benefited urban centres,” Abdulai Mohammed of Nanton District and former Northern Regional Dean of Presiding Members said.

According to him, it will be a game changer because its implementation will almost be like a special-purpose vehicle.

“A dedicated fund for the development of electoral areas means that finally, special focus will be given to these electoral areas, and that is what has been lacking all these years,” Abdulai Mohammed added.

Consequently, the Northern Regional Presiding Members called for “massive support for the candidate who has proposed that innovative idea.”

The Electoral Area Development Fund is one of many innovative policies that Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, who is also the 2024 presidential candidate of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), has promised to implement if he is voted for to become president.

The implementation will entail the establishment of a dedicated fund for the development of electoral areas across the country.

Because the electoral areas actually are subzones of constituencies, experts say the idea will really help spread pockets of development all over the country, and this will really catalyze national development from the ground up.

For assembly members, the idea has been a source of excitement because such a fund will put at their disposal a dedicated budgetary allocation that they can then source for developmental projects within their various electoral areas.

“It is definitely a master stroke idea because it allows those of us who live in these electoral areas and are better familiar with what they need to access and properly target funds for the required development,” Abdulai Mohammed said.

He added, “As assembly members, this is a promise that directly benefits our work, and so I think that backing it is absolutely the natural thing to do.”