Sekondi (Western Region) - The Shama Ahanta East Metropolitan Assembly (SAEMA) has received ?1.65 billion from the government as its share of the Highly Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) fund.

Philip Kwesi Nkrumah, Metropolitan Chief Executive, announced this at the first meeting of the second session of the Metropolitan Assembly at Sekondi. He said the assembly was undertaking 10 projects with the money. They included the construction of a health post at New Takoradi, a 16-seater aqua privy toilet at Kwesiminstim Sabon Zongo, Anaji, Effia, New Site, Effiakuma, Asemansudo and Nyankrom.

The other projects were the construction of two refuse hard standings at Shama and the construction of a block of six-classrooms for the Prophet Nkansah School at Kojokrom. Nkrumah said the assembly had approved an amount of ?20.8m under the Social Investment Fund (SIF) for the construction of five schools.

They included Effia Methodist Basic School, Nkroful Nursery, Kansaworodu Day-Care Centre, Effiakuma Zongo and Eshiem Schools. He said 10 more projects were being processed for implementation under the same programme in the course of the year.

Nkrumah said ?350m had been disbursed to various groups and individuals as micro credit under the Poverty Alleviation Fund. "The disbursement of the fund for next year would focus on micro enterprises in particular and in the spirit of poverty reduction" he said.

He said government had approved ?500m for the implementation of the health insurance scheme in the Metropolis to replace the "Cash and Carry System". In this direction, the Metropolitan Director of Health was liasing with districts where the scheme had already started to learn from their experiences, to avoid hitches in its implementation.

Nkrumah said the assembly received ?905m last year as its share of the District Assemblies' Common Fund (DACF). He noted that a short fall in the assembly's estimated budget of ?3.7bn last year, made it difficult for the assembly to pay contractors who had completed their projects.

Nkrumah called on the assembly to consider how to replicate the President's Special Initiatives (PSI) in the Metropolis. He said the Metropolis abounded in natural and human resources to successfully partake in these initiatives particularly that of cassava, oil palm and sugarcane.

Nkrumah said as a first step towards pursuing these initiatives, the assembly would set up a business desk to deal with issues relating to investments. He, however, lamented that Shama continued to lag behind other areas of the Metropolis in education and he had instructed the Metropolitan Director of Education to open a Sub-Office in Shama to arrest the situation.