Mr Francis Ganyaglo, Deputy Volta Regional Minister, has urged Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), to look away from their traditional sources for extra funds for development.
He said it was clear the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF) and the District Development Fund (DDF), the main sources of funding from the Central Government, could not meet their expanding development needs.
Mr Ganyaglo made the call when he opened a two-day donors’ conference, a novelty stakeholders forum by the Central Tongu District Assembly at Adidome, to mobilize financial, logistics and technical support from other sources, for its development goals.
It was on the theme: “Harnessing Stakeholder Resources for the Development of Central Tongu”.
Development partners at the conference included UNICEF, Hunger Project, USAID, Action-Aid, Businesspeople, NGOs and chiefs.
Mr Ganyaglo said the Assemblies had the opportunity to seek extra funding from local sources, including taxes, fees and loans.
He said it was innovative for the Central Tongu Assembly to hold the donor conference, and urged other districts to try it.
Mrs Ama Theodora Amenyenu, Central Tongu District Chief Executive, (DCE), said funding shortfalls jolted all past medium-term plans of the Assembly.
She explained that the donor conference was to help pull donor support, to prop the current 2014-2017 Medium-Term Development Plan.
“I hope this partnership would draw in the needed support through pledges and commitment for our development,” the DCE stated.
