Sunyani, (B/A), May 15, GNA - The government made a total payment of=

GH¢ 27,623,39.05 as subsidies and re-insurance claims to all the 19 municipal and district health insurance schemes in the Brong-Ahafo Region=

between January and December 2009, Mr Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, Regional Minister said on Friday. He said that marked an improvement on the figure of GH¢ 15,820,016= ..00 for the same period in 2008 under the previous administration. The Regional Minister added that from January to May this year, the government had again disbursed an amount of GH¢ 22,049,989.10 to the 19=

schemes within the region.

Mr Nyamekye-Marfo was speaking in Sunyani at a regional meet the pre= ss programme chaired by Mr John Tia Akologu, Minister of Information, to sensitize the public about government policies and programmes. It was also designed as a way of decentralizing government informati= on flow to ensure that the country's agenda setting programmes and policies were done by both the government and the people. The programme, organized jointly by the Ministry of Information and the Regional Coordinating Council (RCC), was attended by the media, municipal=

and district chief executives, regional heads of security services and ministries, departments and agencies. A Member of Council of state, Mrs. Cecilia Johnson, political party functionaries and the general public were also present.

Mr Nyamekye-Marfo said the region was performing well in its coverag= e of the NHIS as by the end of 2009, a total of 1,479,370 subscribers had registered with the various schemes out of a total regional population of=

2,213,318, representing 66.84 per cent. He said following the government's aim of high level support for HIV/AIDS initiatives, the region's two municipal and district assemblies received funding of between GH¢ 2,500.00 and GH¢ 2,650.00 each whilst= the RCC sourced GH¢ 4000.00 mainly for coordination, management, monitoring= and evaluation of decentralized responses in 2009. Within the same period, four civil society organizations also had GH= ¢ 25,000.00 for HIV/AIDS projects, he added.

On education, Mr. Nyamekye-Marfo said between 2008/2009, there was a=

steady increase in enrolment levels of pupils and students in the kindergarten, primary and Junior High Schools. He said Senior High School admissions shot up from 36,948 to 38,148,= an increase of 1,200 students, signifying 3.25 percent despite challenges including inadequate number of trained teachers. According to him, a total number of 108,073 pupils were presently enjoying from the school feeding programme in 262 kindergarten and primar= y schools out of 747 schools, constituting 35.07 per cent.

Mr Nyamekye-Marfo expressed satisfaction that the security situation= in the region had returned to normalcy, and that not withstanding, the relat= ive peace was not being taken for granted but fortified with the presence of security personnel for timely response to any threats.

He commended the officers and men of the security services in the region for a good job done despite the inadequate logistics and constrain= ts. Concerning the agricultural sector, Mr Nyamekye-Marfo revealed that in 2009 the government supported the region with fertilizer subsidies, sayin= g as at December that year, a total of 319,650 bags of fertilizer had been delivered to the region. He said that helped farmers to increase their output for the region to maintain its status as the "Bread Basket" of Ghana contributing not less than 30 per cent of the country's food requirements.

He said food production witnessed "significant increases" during 200= 9 as maize recorded a rise of 26.93 per cent yield whilst rice also increas= ed by over 400 per cent. Mr. Nyamekye-Marfo highlighted on a number of achievements and cited=

among other things the successful year-long celebration of its golden jubilee anniversary and that efforts were being made to improve on the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP) and the National Plantation Project. He said the celebration facilitated the construction of a 50-seater capacity golden jubilee Information-Communication-Technology centre by th= e RCC with funding from the GETfund. Mr. Akologu who assisted the Regional Minister to respond to questio= ns and contributions reiterated government's determination and resolve to ru= n an open-door and transparent administration. 15 May 10