The Minister of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs, Mr Ahmed Ibrahim, has lamented the lack of adequate spatial planning specialists or professionals in the Metropolitan, Municipal, and District Assemblies (MMDAs) across the country.
According to Mr Ibrahim, there had been only 10 specialists or professionals in all the 261 MMDAs nationwide, which he said had affected spatial planning at the local level.
The sector Minister raised the concern when he contributed to a statement read by the Minority Chief Whip, Mr Frank Annor-Dompreh, on urban greening on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday.
Mr Ibrahim said: “The reason why the Land Use and Spatial Planning Bill had been passed in 2016 had been to ensure its implementation. But how many specialists had we had in the 261 MMDAs? We had had only ten professionals.”
“The Office of the Local Government Service had sought financial clearance to recruit professionals. Once they had obtained the clearance, they had recruited social scientists instead. So, the Ministry had not had the needed professionals to plan spatial development and implement related reports,” he added.
Mr Ibrahim further underscored the need for government and the citizenry to take the greening of the country seriously to help combat climate change and restore degraded lands.
He said he collaborated with the Minister of Education and Member for Tamale South, Mr Haruna Iddrisu, to ensure that trees had been planted around new schools built by the government.
The sector Minister also appealed to Parliament to ensure that an allocation of funds was made for the Green Ghana initiative before the approval of the budget.
“A great disservice had been done to the Ministry when no fund allocation had been made to it during the passage of the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF). The Ministry had zero funding from the DACF. My call and plea had been that when we had approved the 2026 formula, we had found a way to allocate funds for greening Ghana after the 80 per cent allocation of DACF directly to the MMDAs,” Mr Ibrahim said.
He further noted that the Ministry of Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs had signed an agreement with the Norwegian Embassy to implement the Sustainable Development Goals Cities Programme in ten cities across the country.
He commended Mr Annor-Dompreh for the comprehensive statement he delivered on the floor of Parliament and assured him that the recommendations contained in it had been given the necessary consideration.
By BENJAMIN ARCTON-TETTEY
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