Zabzugu, (NR), June 21, GNA - The Zabzugu/Tatale District Assembly has been allocated 9.4 billion cedis as its share of the District Assemblies Common Fund.

Out of the amount, 2.8 billion cedis has been approved for economic ventures, 1.9 billion cedis for social services, 1.4 billion allocated for capacity building while 270 million cedis has been approved for the maintenance of security and the provision of office accommodation service for the Immigration Department.

Alhaji Yakubu Bukari, the Zabzugu/Tatale District Chief Executive, said this at the First Ordinary Session of the Assembly at Zabzugu on Wednesday.

He said 50 million cedis would be used for the provision of accommodation and extension of facilities, project management and provision of incentives like best worker award and the environment. The rest are self-help projects 500 million cedis, disaster management and contingency 1.9 million cedis and 300 million cedis to support gender and vulnerable groups.

Alhaji Yakubu said under the 2005 HIPC Relief Fund, the assembly has been allocated 360 million cedis which was used for the construction of a 10-seat KVIP at Nachemba No 1, 10-seat KVIP for the Zabzugu, supply of dual desks, teachers' tables and chairs for the Tatale and Nakpale Junior Secondary schools.

He said with the introduction of the Capitation Grant, there has been a tremendous increase in enrolment in schools in the district and urged parents to ensure that all their children were sent to school. He said some schools in the district had been selected to benefit from the NEPAD school feeding programme and urged the school authorities and parents to cooperate with those implementing the programmed to make it a success.

Alhaji Yakubu urged the people to honour their tax obligations to enable the Assembly embark on more development projects for the benefit of the people.

Mr Attah Abebe Dawuni, Presiding Member of the Assembly, urged the assembly members to show interest in development projects undertaken in their electoral areas to ensure that no shoddy works were done. He expressed concern about the abandonment of construction works on the Zabzugu and Tatale roads and appealed to the Northern Regional Minister and the Minister of Transportation and the Department of Feeder Roads to ensure that the contractors resume work on the roads before the rains set in Mr Dawuni appealed to the chiefs, opinion leaders and youth associations in the district to mobilise the people to regularly undertake clean-up exercises to keep the town clean.