Thirty-six Persons with Disability (PWDs) in the Akatsi North District have benefited from the distribution of assorted items to empower them to become economically self-reliant.

The items included; industrial sewing machines, refrigerators, chest freezers, laptops, industrial knitting and overlock machines, movable cassava mills, motorcycles, barbering tools, printing machines and farm inputs worth over GHC 100,000.00.

Mr Godwin Gordon Gomado, Chairman, Akatsi North Disability Fund Management Committee in an interview with the Ghana News Agency during the presentation said the 36 persons were the fourth batch of beneficiaries saying about 130 PWDs had so far benefitted from the distribution.

He explained that the process to identify persons for the support included; going round to sensitise them on their needs, taking in applications for vetting before recommending items to be procured by the three percent allocation from the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF).

Mr Saviour Xorlali Doamekpor, Secretary, Ave-Dakpa Disability Group and the beneficiary was grateful to the Assembly for the support saying the printing equipment he received would help him, a graphic designer a great deal.

He called on other beneficiaries to use the items for the intended purposes for only that would prevent them from begging for alms on the streets to make a living.

Mr Doamekpor appealed to the Assembly to take steps to extend the support to the remaining PWDs numbering about 270 to benefit from the scheme.

Dr Prince Sodoke Amuzu, District Chief Executive of Akatsi North speaking at the joint Disability Fund disbursement and 36th Farmers’ Day celebration, touted the Akufo-Addo administration for implementing social programmes to directly impact lives of thousands of Ghanaians and said it was important the government was retained to do more.

He mentioned the government's increase of the Disability Fund from two to three percent of the DACF, aimed at making more resources available to support PWDs with whatever they requested to enable them to enjoy decent livelihood.

He said government’s flagship programmes of Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) saw 4,089 farmers in the district benefit from subsidised fertilizers and improved planting materials, while 2,000 farmers were registered to benefit from free distribution of coconut, palm and cashew seedlings under the Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) among others.

Mr Mawuli Abusah, District Agriculture Director said the theme for the 2020 celebration “Ensuring Agribusiness Development under COVID-19 –Opportunities and Challenges” called for the need to morph the challenges of the pandemic into opportunities to develop agribusiness in the agrarian district.

He said there were untapped potentials like vast arable lands, dams and dugouts that needed harnessing to make the district the food basket of Ghana and called for mechanisation, crop diversification and value addition to solve the problems of relying on manual labour, the poor market for some produce and post-harvest losses respectively.

In the nine awards given to honour farmers and a farmer-based organisation for their invaluable contribution to keeping the nation’s food baskets safe, Mr Samuel Gah emerged the District Best Farmer and received agricultural items.