Cape Coast, April 13, GNA - The government has released 960 million cedis towards the reconstruction of the burnt portion of the Kotokuraba Market, Mr Muniru Arafat Nuhu, Cape Coast Municipal Chief Executive announced on Tuesday.

He said work had already begun on the reconstruction of stalls and shops, which were burnt more than a year ago, affecting 102 market women.

Mr Nuhu, announced this at the Regional People's Assembly and the launch of the Fante version of the President's state of the nation address in Cape Coast.

He said the Municipality had also benefited from a number of development projects under the HIPC, District Assemblies Common Fund, GETFund and the Social Investment Fund (SIF) and that more than 7.107 billion cedis had been spent on the improvement of roads in the municipality.

The Municipal Chief Executive further announced that plans were also far advanced for the establishment of a citrus processing plant at Efutu, near Cape Coast, under the rural Enterprise Development Programme, to help improve the income levels of farmers and generate employment for the youth.

The Regional Minister, Mr Isaac Edumadze said the Region would place emphasis on education with the provision of new school blocks and urged parents to avail themselves of the opportunity to enrol their children in school.

He, however, expressed his displeasure about the work of some contractors in the Region, saying: "More than 10 contracts, including some HIPC projects will be terminated because the contractors are not living up to expectation."

The Minister said in some cases, the contractors should have finished their projects by now, but had just completed about nine percent of the work.