Saviepe-Gbogame (V/R), July 14, GNA - The Sixth Micro-Projects Programme of the European Union is to begin in July with a grant of 25 million Euros.

This followed the successful completion of the fifth segment of the programme throughout the country. Under the programme, started in the 1990s, the EU bears 75 percent of the cost of projects while the district assemblies and beneficiary communities take up the remaining 25 percent.

Mr Ransford Danquah of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning said this at the commissioning of a classroom block for the Saviefe-Gbogame E.P. Primary School that was built under the Fifth EU Micro-Projects Programme.

Mr Danquah said the EU Micro-Projects Programme has been a useful supplement to the country's poverty reduction programmes as the projects addressed problems of health, education, water and sanitation infrastructure, income generation and capacity development especially in the rural communities.

Mr Kofi Dzamesi, the Volta Regional Minister, urged district assemblies and communities in the region to be ready to take advantage of the Sixth Micro-Projects Programme to speed up development in the region.

He thanked the EU "for the wonderful support and help being extended to us in the Volta Region and Ghana as a whole". Mr Robert Boakye, Volta Region Co-ordinator of the Micro-Projects Programme, told the GNA that 377 projects worth 26 billion cedis were undertaken in the region under the third phase of the Fifth Micro-Projects Programme.