Kumasi, Aug 26, GNA - Forty-one Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) throughout the country, have been selected to benefit from a five-year Ghana Social Opportunities Project (GSOP) that would be financed with $89.1 million.

The International Development Agency is providing US$88.6 million of th= e package and the Ghana Government is expected to make available the remainin= g $0.5 million.

The five-year project, which took off in October last year, would support Government's National Social Protection Strategy, Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty Programme, labour intensive public works, capacity building and project management and coordination. The Ministries of Local Government and Rural Development, Finance and Economic Planning, and Employment and Social Welfare, the implementing bodies, would work with the MMDAs to ensure the successful execution of the project.

Mr Acquinas Tawiah Quansah, Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, announced these in a speech read for him at a day's national orientation workshop on GSOP, in Kumasi on Thursday. The programme, organized by the Ministry brought together representatives of the MMDAs, government departments and agencies, aimed at sensitizing participants on their roles in the implementation of the project.

Mr Quansah said the project that formed part of the drive to create a= n all-inclusive and socially empowered society sought to provide safety net for persons living in extreme poverty, and the exclusion as well as rationalization of government's social protection spending. He expressed concern about extreme poverty levels in some communities and said he was confident that the project would make life better for the poor.

Mr Quansah said the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development in collaboration with other stakeholders had started recruiting staff for the project and gave the assurance that by September, the full complement o= f workers would be in place for the smooth implementation of the project. Dr Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah, Ashanti Regional Minister, said the project formed part of the Better Ghana Agenda aimed at improving the living conditions of the people though employment generation. He tasked the participants to judiciously apply skills and knowledge they had acquired at the workshop, to ensure the successful implementation of the project.