Nadowli, Nov. 30, GNA - Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama on Sunday commissioned streetlights and a Maternal and Child Health Centre at the Nadowli township in the Upper West Region as part of his three-day working visit to the region.

The streetlight project cost 291 million cedis whilst the construction of Maternal and Child Health centre cost 190 million cedis.

Alhaji Aliu said the government had approved a total of 41 billion cedis for rural electrification projects throughout the country as a way of reducing poverty among the people in the rural areas.

He said: "This amount is part of our harvest from the HIPC fund, which apart from electrification projects, would be used to fund the building of schools and health centres among others."

On agriculture, Alhaji Aliu said the government had acquired about 7.6 billion cedis for the construction of dams and wells for some communities in the Upper West, Upper East and Northern regions and called on the people to make maximum use of the facilities when the were provided.

Alhaji Aliu said the government had also launched a 50 billion-cedi endowment fund to enable women to undertake income-generating activities to empower themselves financially.

He advised parents to send the children to school and to take good care of them to enable them to become future leaders.

The Vice-President who rounded-up his three-day tour of the Region, visited elders of Sokpeyiri, a suburb of Wa, interacted with the people of Serekpere, Goriyiri, dapuori and Kaleo all in the Nadowli District and climaxed the day by attending Kakube festival, an annual Agricultural festival of the chiefs and people of Nandom traditional area.