The Kpando Municipal Assembly has qualified for GH¢349,129 to be used to develop the municipality by passing the Functional Organisational Assessment Tool (FOAT). Mr Akwasi Oppong-Fosu, the Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, who made this known, said the performance of the assembly also qualified the new North Dayi District to receive the same amount.

FOAT is a tool under the District Development Facility (DDF), a performance-based grant system introduced by the government to be implemented by the ministry as part of its efforts to improve the performance of district assemblies in terms of efficiency, accountability and delivery of basic community services.

Mr Oppong-Fosu was speaking at the launch of the celebration of the centenary of the return of late King Dagadu Anku III from exile in Cameroun. He said assemblies that performed well in the FOAT assessment would be rewarded financially by the ministry to develop their areas.

Mr Oppong-Fosu said the government’s decentralisation programme was beneficial because its functions such as providing infrastructure, basic health care, sanitation and waste management and providing security were best situated and delivered at local government levels.

He said the government was aware of the socio-economic importance of the Kpando Traditional Area to the development of the country, hence its elevation to the status of a municipal assembly to provide quality services to the people.

Mr Opong-Fosu appealed to the traditional authorities and the people of the municipality to co-operate with the assembly to bring development to the area and appealed to them to take special interest in all programmes and projects of the assembly.

Okpekpewuokpe Togbui Dagadu VIII, the Paramount Chief of Akpini, said the festival was instituted to commemorate the return of Okpekpewuokpe Togbui Dagadu Anku III from exile in Cameroon on January 22, 1915.

King Dagadu Anku III was sent into exile on March 13, 1914 for being critical of the policies of Germany, then governing the Volta Region as part of Trans-Volta Togoland. He was freed on September 27, 1914 by British forces that defeated the German army in Cameroon during World War 1.

Togbui Dagadu said King Dagadu Anku III did not fight against colonialism for the wellbeing of only his people in Akpini State but also for the whole of the then Togoland.