Wiamoase (Ash), June 15, GNA - Nine districts in the Ashanti Region are benefiting from over 57 billion cedis worth of infrastructural development under the Town IV Project of the German and Ghana governments.

The project, which is being implemented in the Ashanti Region alone, involves the construction and rehabilitation of schools, markets, and health and sanitation infrastructures.

The beneficiary districts are Afigya-Sekyere, Ejisu-Juaben, Kwabre, Ahafo-Ano North and South, Atwima-Mponua, Atwima-Nwabiagya and the Asante-Akim North and South.

Mr Emmanuel Asamoah Owusu-Ansah, Ashanti Regional Minister, made this known in an address read for him at the inauguration and inspection of some of the projects at Wiamoase in the Afigya-Sekyere District on Thursday.

The beneficiary schools at Wiamoase are the Salvation Army, Presbyterian and the Islamic Basic Schools. The Regional Minister stressed the need for district assemblies to make maximum use of technical staff from the Department of Community Development and Public Works Department to supervise development projects in their districts.

Mr Owusu-Ansah thanked the German government for the support and urged the people to take good care of the projects. He said since the Town IV Project was community-owned, there was the need for the assemblies to involve the beneficiary communities in the selection and the implementation process of the projects. Dr Wolfgang Weteh, German Director of the Project, said the projects were a gift from the German people to Ghana on her 50th anniversary.

He stressed the need for the involvement of the beneficiary communities in the implementation of the project to promote transparency, accountability and the decentralization process. Dr Weteh pledged the German government's continued support to the development efforts of the country and called on the people to contribute their quota towards the development of the nation. Mr Ben Abankwah, District Chief Executive for Afigya-Sekyere, said 30 communities were benefiting from development under the project. The DCE commended Germany for not only sponsoring those projects but as well sponsoring the districts with a total of 117 boreholes and 140 household latrines under the water and sanitation programme. Mr Abankwah said under the programme, beneficiary communities must contribute three per cent of the total amount to the operation and maintenance fund in order to maintain the projects from time to time. Nana Otuo Adjei Acheampong, chief of Kofiase who represented Nana Dr Anokye Frimpong Ababbio II, Omanhene of Agona, thanked the donors for their selflessness.

He presented books on the history of the Ashanti Kingdom to the Project Director and a representative of the German Embassy, Miss Sonja Scheiffler.

In a related development, Mr Ernest Yaw Kwarteng, Director of the Regional Co-ordinating Council, has inspected a clinic, which was upgraded to a hospital at the cost of 4.2 billion cedis at Jamasi. The hospital has Male and Female wards, two Children's wards and an Out-patients Department. The renovation was part of the Town IV Project. 15 June 07