Some residents of the Brong Ahafo Region have raised concerns about the relatively snail’s pace of socio-economic development in the transitional area of the region, which falls within the northern ecological zone under the of the Savanna Accelerated Development Authority’s (SADA) umbrella.

According to them, despite the enormous economic potentials in the SADA zone of the region, especially agriculture and tourism, the area has not seen any significant development initiated by SADA.

The SADA zone in Brong Ahafo covers Atebubu-Amantin, Pru, Sene East and West, Tain, Banda, Kintampo North and South. Agriculture along its value chain is the major employer of the active population in these areas. These districts are well-noted for the cultivation of maize, rice, cashew, mango, yam, and soya beans among others.

Mr. Kwame Appiah Baah, Acting Brong Ahafo Regional Chairman of the Associations of Ghana Industries (AGI), told the B&FT: “SADA has added next to nothing to the socio-economic advancement of the people. If nothing else, the Authority should be able to assist farmers to increase production of the traditional crops in these areas”.

He said SADA must focus on the competitive advantage of specific areas and develop them. “There are vast arable lands for cashew production, but lack of support to farmers is impeding their drive to expand farms so as to produce more to feed processors; SADA must lend a helping hand to revive the cashew industry.”

Of the twelve cashew processing plants in the Brong Ahafo Region, eleven have shut down due to non-availability of raw cashew nuts. The total production capacity of the plants, hovering around 70,000 metric tonnes, outstrips the domestic raw nuts production of about 60,000mt. The processors have to compete with financially-sound exporters for the insufficient raw cashew nuts, thus forcing many out of the industry.

A Civil Society Activist and CEO of Global Media Foundation (GLOMEF) – an NGO, Raphael Godlove Ahenu said: “In drawing policies to be relevant to the beneficiary people, it is very important for managers of SADA to solicit inputs from the various communities rather than to rely solely on consultants”.

He is of the view that consultants’ recommendations do not always represent the true account of what the people need to transform their lives. According to him, many farmers in the SADA jurisdiction within Brong Ahafo are not aware of the Authority’s existence and how to access any available support to improve their lives.

In response to the concerns Charles Abugre, CEO of SADA, in an interview with B&FT entreated the people to exercise restraint as the Authority works assiduously to equally impact positively across the length and breadth of the SADA zone. He noted that the public’s expectations are very high in regard to the less resourceful institution.

“SADA is very young institution; it just started operations in 2013. However, Brong Ahafo has so far received its fair share of the three major initiated projects -- agricultural supply inputs, tree-planting and the botched guinea-fowl project. Farmers there were supplied with inputs and BA also has the largest area of surviving trees of those planted,” he stated.

Mr. Abugre continued that the Authority has revised its methodologies of embarking on projects; this and other initiatives such as investment promotion and recruitment of Regional Coordinators will further fast-track development in the regions.