Wa, July 28, GNA - The Upper West Regional Coordinating Council has in consultation with Municipal and District Assemblies in the region increased the monthly stipend of Paramount Chiefs in the region to five hundred thousand (500,000) cedis with effect from July this year. These chiefs, have over the years been earning between two thousand (2,000) cedis and 50,000 per month from their respective District Assemblies, amounts which most of the affected chiefs regarded as highly ridiculous and therefore hardly collected them.

Mr Ambrose Dery, the regional Minister announced this at a durbar of chiefs and people of the region at Wa on Thursday during which this year's National Festival of Arts and Culture (NAFAC), to be hosted by the region from November 17 to 25, was launched.

With the increase in their pay, Mr Dery hoped the chiefs would be motivated enough to mobilize their subjects to meet their commitments to the Assemblies such as the payment of basic rates, fees, taxes and levies to enable them to get more resources to develop their communities.

He advised the Chiefs and their landowners to establish land banks, which they could in future release to relevant organizations and agencies to undertake development projects.

He assured the chiefs and people of the region that the government had made funds available in its recent supplementary budget for the tarring of the Tinga-Bamboi portion of the Wa- Bamboi road that was in a very deplorable state.

Naa sohamininye Danaah Gore the , Acting President of the Regional House of Chiefs, said the country had reached a stage where its citizens could not allow protracted chieftaincy conflicts to frustrate its development efforts and reminded the people that dispute-prone areas would never attract any investor.

Since government had made it clear that chieftaincy matters would be left to the various Judicial Committees to solve and would only intervene when peace and stability were threatened, he urged the Traditional Authorities to ensure that such conflict situations did not arise.