December 2021 Archives
Posted on Dec 18,2021
The Sekyere East District Chief Executive, Hon Mary Boatemaa Marfo commissioned a 10 seater KVIP at Buoya in the Sekyere East District of Ashanti Region. In an interview with the DCE, she said the town is the only town in the District without electricity, coupled with public place of convenience and portable drinking water. These are major problems facing the town. Although, the assembly is not financially sound, prudent measures were taken to meet the needs of the residents, and that their priorities as an assembly have been set. She admonished the residents of the town to take proper care of the facility and show high culture of maintenance so that they can use that one to lobby for more infrastructural projects. She expressed her gratefulness to the assemblyman for the area Mr Emmanuel Frimpong who has never relented in his efforts to serve his people and urged him to continue as such. The Assembly member, Hon Frimpong Emmanuel, on behalf on the people of Buoya expressed their sincere, profound and heartfelt gratitude to the DCE and the assembly for their support, and appealed to them for more infrastructural projects. He promised the DCE and the assembly that absolute care will be taken to see to it that the KVIP is always maintained.
Posted on Dec 7,2021
Posted on Dec 1,2021
The District Chief Executive (DCE) welcomed participants to the meeting and enumerated projects that have been undertaken by government under her administration. As well as the efforts put in by her administration to defray almost GHc 3 billion owed to contractors by the assembly. The DCE continued that prior to her assumption of office the DA was ranked 197 among the comity of DAs in Ghana but with the advent of the GSAM project and its collaboration with the DA, they were ranked 57 and presently ranked 30 in Ghana. The district planning officer and other supporting key officials of the assembly took turns to explain processes the assembly goes through in arriving at choices of capital development projects (CDPs) in the various communities, award of contracts to contractors and the sources of funding for the various CDPs, mechanisms for payments due contractors and monitoring of CDPs in the communities. These were done through power point presentations with pictorial evidence of different types CDPs in various communities, at different levels of completion and some of them completed and commissioned for use in the communities. Questions after the presentations were asked for clarifications. The Chairman of the District PWDs Association wanted to know, whether or not beneficiaries of the DA’s support to PWDs are consulted/engaged with before the extension of support? Reason being most of those who received the support of deep freezers have either sold them or the freezers are sitting idle in their homes. The DA accepted their not engaging with the beneficiaries but have since modified their modus operandi. A unit committee member from Effiduase wants the DA to carefully assess contractors before award of contracts. He queried as who owns the awarded CDPs the contractors or the DA? Mary Acheampong a CDM from Apemso community lamented over the undue delay of a school project in the community notwithstanding the numerous efforts made by the community’s leadership to the DA. She continued that most parents and guardians have threatened to withdraw their wards from the town after a pupil got hurt during a rainstorm in the old school building. This same challenge was also voiced out by Asokawkaw community. The DA in response explained that, some contractors pre-finance the CDPs while others work and gets paid upon the submission of documents to that effect and gets paid accordingly. Furthermore, funding for the various CDPs are from different sources and cannot be used for projects other than what they were originally marked out for. Another representative from the PWDs’ Eric Bediako pointed out that real inclusion of PWDs must be the order of the day and not mere participation. He complained about the absence of a sign language interpreter to compensate for the difficulty hearing.
November 2021 Archives
Posted on Nov. 11,2021
Chief Executive for the Sekyere East District Assembly has pledged to work hard to ensure the flagship policies and programmes of the New Party Party’s led administration are achieved. Mary Boatemaa Marfo who was among the ten Chief Executives sworn in by the Ashanti Regional Minister to head their various Municipal and District Assemblies, is optimistic that policies outlined by the Nana Akufo-Addo led administration will help transform the country’s economy. Mrs. Marfo indicated that her district is bedeviled with challenges such as poor road networks, falling standards of education, inadequate logistics for the health facilities in the area- situations she lamented were affecting the social and economic lives of the people. The DCE said it was worrying for residents living in the District capital (Effiduase) because the roads in the town were all in deplorable state. She attributed the decline in Agriculture to the poor road network in the area since farmers were unable to cart their farm produce to the market. “Since the President says he was ready to work for the country and my Member of Parliament has also pledged same, I would have to ensure that stringent measures are put in place to bring enough development to the District which will go a long way to benefit the people in the area”. She has also pledged her commitment to empower women in the area with start-up capital to help support and sustain their businesses. She called on all residents and constituents within the Sekyere East District to rally behind her since the development of the area was a concerted effort. Madam Boatemaa Marfo has also indicated her relentless commitment to work assiduously to support Government’s key programmes and policies that will go a long way to benefit not only the people of her District, but also Ghanaians as a whole.
October 2021 Archives
Posted on October 10,2021
The Parliamentary Select Committee, as part of its three days tour in the Ashanti Region visited the Effiduasi District Hospital where the Vice chairman of the committee Hon Dr Nana Ayew Afriyie is a Member of parliament for the constituency. In a meeting with the District Chief Executive Hon Mary Boatemaa Marfo, District Director of Health Mrs Dorothy Afoakwa and the staff from the assembly and the health directorate, the health director outlined series of problems affecting the efficiency of their work including her accommodation, transportation, inadequate staff personnel, lack of equipments and logistics and basic things needed for health delivery. The situation was not different from the Effiduasi District Hospital where the committee met the management of the Hospital. Mr Felix Archer, the administrator of the hospital outlined the same problems as the health directorate but critically to add were no X-ray for the District Hospital, only two doctors serving a population of 72000 and irregular power supply which affects some drugs. The issue of NHIS was not left out because the tariffs is low but the top up is very high affecting the IGF of the hospital which is used to compromise the quality of health services delivery at the facility. Hon Dr Kwabena Twum Nuamah, chairman of the committee and leader of the delegation expressed their sincere, profound and heartfelt gratitude to the staff for their commitment and dedication to work inspite of these numerous challenges. He called on philanthropists to help the hospitals raise to the status it deserves so that it can serve the purpose with which it was established in 1954 as a health post and later raised to the status of a hospital in 1996. The committee visited the Asokore Community Midwifery Training School which is under construction. Hon Mary Boatemaa Marfo, DCE for the Sekyere East District Assembly , on behalf of the District showed her appreciation to the committee for selecting the District and coming down to see their problems and appealed to them to support the MP for Effiduasi/Asokore constituency when he puts these and many problems facing the District on the floor of parliament
September 2021 Archives
Posted on September 19,2021
Hon Mary Boatemaa Marfo, DCE for Sekyere East District Assembly commissioned a 16-seater aqua-privy for Effiduasi Senior High school. She said, the Assembly is committed to the development of the District which is it’s core mandate, and she together with Hon Dr Nana Ayew Afriyie MP for Effiduasi/Asokore constituency will not relent on their efforts towards the development of the District. The DCE presented four light poles, and on behalf of the MP presented four complete street light bulbs to the headmaster of the school. Mr Amoantwi, headmaster of the school expressed his sincere, profound and heartfelt gratitude to the DCE and MP for their timely and kind gesture especially, when the school population has increased rapidly due to the introduction of the flagship Free SHS policy. He promised that the facility will be put into good use and will be maintained intermittently. He appealed to the assembly to help them complete their internally initiated projects including a 24-seater aqua-privy and a two storey dormitory project. He added that, bad road network in the school is also affecting the status of the school and plead for immediate attention to address the road network in the school. The DCE promised to headmaster that the assembly will do its maximum best to help Effisco to attain the status it deserves
August 2021 Archives
Posted on Aug 7,2021
THE dream of Akokoaso District Assembly (DA) Junior High School (JHS) at Akokoaso in the Sekyere East District of Ashanti to begin its first participation in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Paper of the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) will soon come to reality. This follows the presentation of two brand new flat-screen computers valued at GH¢1, 100. 00 that a Lecturer at the Kumasi Polytechnic, Mr Agyabeng Owusu presented to resource the school in the area of teaching and learning of ICT. Since the establishment of the school, it has not been able to sit the ICT Paper since it was added to the JHS curriculum due to unavailability of computers to aid in teaching and learning. In the 2013/2014 academic year, some 24 BECE candidates of the school determined to sit the ICT Paper but for the fact that they had to study ICT in abstract curtailed that determination and that the presence of the computers this time round to make it a dream-come-through for the 2014/2015 BECE candidates. At a presentation ceremony at the school, Mr Agyabeng said it had always be his dream to improve upon the education lifestyle of schoolchildren and that the presentation was a fulfilling one. He said as a lecturer, he had be raised from a village which was more remote to Akokoaso in the same Sekyere East District and that the JHS pupils at Akokoaso could not use depravity and remoteness as an excuse not to broaden the frontiers of their education lives. He however, asked them to be determined and purposeful, adding that the school authorities made sure the computers were properly maintained and used for the intended purpose. The Sekyere East District Director of Education, Nana Otuo Acheampong who received the computers on behalf of the school asked both the teachers and the pupils translate the impact of the presentation onto the BECE performance. He however, handed computers over to the head teacher of the school, Mr Blankson Ankomah who in turn expressed gratitude to Mr Agyabeng for the benevolence and support for education at the school. Early on Mr Agyabeng had presented two of the same computers to the Senchi DA JHS, Nkwakwanua, Brofoyedru and Okaikrom. He as well presented one computer each to schools at Putuom, Attakrom , Odurokrom and Seniagya while a packet of iron sheet was also presented to the Odurokrom DA JHS to support infrastructure development. All these cost him GH¢60, 500.00
July 2021 Archives
Posted on July 17,2021
Hon Mary Boatemaa Marfo, DCE for Sekyere East District Assembly in the Ashanti Region , appeals to parents and guardians to stop investing their money and other resources on funerals, engagements, weddings, etc and direct all their resources into their wards education. Speaking at the 75th Anniversary of Ntunkumso Presby Basic school at Ntunkumso in the Sekyere East District of Ashanti Region, the DCE advised parents and guardians gathered to pay serious attention to their wards Basic education which is a stepping board for the pupils to progress to enjoy the landmark educational policy ‘free Senior High School’. She said it will be very suicidal for a pupil who has completed Basic school to miss this flagship policy by the Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo led NPP government. She added that the government has given extrinsic motivation to the JHS 3 candidates by absorbing their BECE registration fees and urged candidates to take advantage of that. The 75th Anniversary which was graced by so many dignitaries including the chiefs and queenmothers of the area, The Ashanti Regional Chairman of Presbyterian Education Unit, The District Director of Education, The District Minister of Presbyterian Church, Effiduasi among others, was aimed at building a classroom block to commence JHS for the primary school. The school which began with 11 pupils is now having a population of over 400 pupils. The Head teacher of the school outlined problems facing the school and the key one was ICT and called on philanthropists and government to come to their aid. The DCE who also represented her Member of parliament Hon Dr Nana Ayew Afriyie promised to give 50 bags of cement to start the JHS building. The programme was full of fun and was very educative with activities like drama, traditional dance, news casting, and others.
June 2021 Archives
Posted on June 11,2021
The Sekyere East District Assembly, in the Ashanti Region, has secured a partnership agreement with N-D Eco Limited, a private entity, to set up a $50 million multipurpose factory for the production of dairy, beef, leather and other related products, under the government’s flagship ‘One district, one factory’ initiative. Work is expected to soon commence on the project, after the Asokoremanhene, Prof. Nana Susubiribi Krobea Asante, handed over 150 acres of land to the Assembly and is expected to create over 1,000 direct and indirect employment for the people in the area. About 400 direct hands are likely to be employed in the factory, while over 600 indirect income is envisaged to be generated for farmers and other people in the district. The project will have a biogas plant, leather producing component, as well as a dairy and milk component, in addition to an abattoir and a veterinary center. According to the Chief Executive of N-D Eco Limited, Mr. Eugene Nyarko-Danquah, the project will start with about 20,000 cattle after the completion of infrastructural works, within an 8-months duration. He explained that the animals for the factory will be ranched, unlike the unconfined manner livestock is often reared in the country, to prevent them from going out to destroy people’s properties and being a nuisance to the public. He said cow dung from the project will be used as a source of biogas to generate electricity for the use of the factory as well as make some available to the host and surrounding communities. The Public-Private Partnership agreement is not expected to receive any funding from the local assembly, according to Mr. Nyarko-Danquah. At the handing-over of the 150-acre land to the Sekyere East District Assembly for the project, the Paramount Chief of Asokore, Prof. Nana Susubiribi Krobea Asante, said the traditional authority and the people were all interested in development, particularly in creating employment opportunities for the youth. “For this reason, we are delighted to be contributing to the government’s agenda of One District, One Factory, by making this land available,” he said. The District Chief Executive, Mary Boatemaa Marfo, said the project is in fulfillment of government’s promise of implementing the One-District-One-Factory policy, adding that the assembly is also considering a partnership with the private sector to establish palm oil and banana processing factories in the area. To allay the fears of crop farmers in the district, the DCE emphasised that the cattle will be “housed” to prevent them from straying, whilst a farm will be established to harvest food for them. A representative of Mercies Consult and Investment Limited, consultant to the project, Mr. Noah Appiah Kubi, also said the project is in line with the World Food Programme agenda for 2020, on food security and nutrition. He indicated that the work of the factory will, to a large extent, address the shortfalls in the operations of companies that use leather as their raw materials, like the Kumasi Shoe Factory. It will also help reduce the country’s import bill, he said, by reducing the importation of dairy products and raw materials.
May 2021 Archives
Posted on May 16,2021
The Sekyere East District Assembly, today held its general assembly meeting, it was the first meeting for Hon Mary Boatemaa Marfo as District Chief Executive. Also in attendance was the Member of Parliament for Effiduasi / Asokore constituency, Hon Dr Nana Ayew Afriyie. In Her sessional address, Hon Mary Boatemaa Marfo used the opportunity to express her sincere, profound and heartfelt gratitude to His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akuffo Addo for appointing her as the DCE, and to the assembly members who voted to confirm her appointment. She said, she came to meet a debt of GHc 1,055,092.03 at the assembly but the president of the Republic of Ghana has absorbed the debt. The DCE stressed on the areas of interest like sanitation, Girl-Child Education and roads, adding that plans are underway to clear all the refuse at the various sites in the District to improve sanitation. The assembly is working hand in hand with Zoomlion Ghana to expedite their services especially during weekends. She expressed her worry about the state of Girl-Child Education which is going down in the District and outlined her plans to rekindle, rejuvenate and revive the Girl-Child Education to it’s peak so as to improve education in the District. The Member of Parliament for Effiduasi/Asokore constituency Hon Dr Nana Ayew Afriyie admonished the assembly members and the technocrats to rally their support behind the DCE. He urged them to help in the implementation of government policies like Free SHS, One District one Factory, One Million dollars one Constituency, etc. Hon Mary Boatemaa Marfo donated 3 motorbikes to the District Police Command to help them in their patrols and 1 motorbike to the District Fire Service
April 2021 Archives
Posted on April 15,2021
World Vision Ghana (WVG) has upped the effort at promoting child rights and disability issues in the Sekyere East District. As part of this, it has established community child protection committees in 25 villages and towns across the district. Mr. Kwabena Fosu, the Integrated Development Facilitator of the Sekyere East Cluster of the WVG, said it was determined to raise awareness and to provide adequate protection for children. The rights of children should be respected and people should be empowered to identify and report any acts of abuse, he said, at a durbar held at Putuom, a farming community. Mr. Fosu spoke of the need to take deliberate steps to help the community members to work together with the relevant state institutions on matters relating to child’s protection, child’s labour and discrimination against children with disabilities. The durbar was jointly organized by the WVG, the Department of Social Welfare and the District Office of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative justice (CHRAJ). It provided the platform not only to sensitize members of the community on child labour and abuse but to build the capacity of the committees to monitor and protect the rights of, especially rural children. Mr. Fosu said the goal was to deepen community participation in the protection of children. The District Social Welfare Officer, Mr. Awale Mohammed Hamid, reminded parents to put premium on children’s education and growth. They should do everything to provide them with their basic needs - food, shelter and clothing to enable them to lead normal life. He cautioned against forcing children into early marriages and said doing that was wrong – a child right abuse.Mrs. Bertha Zaazie, the District Director of CHRAJ, urged parents and guardians to avoid engaging children in any job that was hazardous and unhelpful to their growth and development. She added that they created equal opportunity for both the boy and the girl child to pursue academic careers.
March 2021 Archives
Posted on March 15,2021
The District Chief Executive (DCE) for the Sekyere East District in the Ashanti Region, Madam Mary Boatemaa Marfo, said the quest for development can only be achieved when the people work together with a common goal. She stated that, “development initiatives can only flourish when there is peaceful environment” and has thus called for unity among resident in the district to improve development. Madam Boatemaa made the appeal to chiefs when she visited some communities within the district on a formalization tour. Some of the communities she visited are Okaikrom, Senkye, Odurokurom, Attakurom. The DCE noted that an area of importance that parents should pay particular attention to should be the education of their wards and advised parents to abstain from investing massively in social gatherings such as funerals, out-doorings and other things that deprive their children the requisite investment for their future. Instead she appealed to them to prioritize their education and spend more time with them in order to instill in them good moral values She said its proper for parents to invest in the education of their children rather than spend on things that would not inure to the future well-being of their children. She noted that, the interaction was to afford community members the opportunity to demand accountability from the assembly as well as answer queries on projects being executed in their communities. Madam Marfo encouraged them to put into use all the skills and knowledge acquired in their training as community monitors, preparation of score cards, monitoring of projects and interface sessions to demand accountability
February 2021 Archives
Posted on Feb 25,2021
Madam Mary Boatemaah Marfo, District Chief Executive (DCE) for Sekyere East, has reiterated government’s commitment to build the capacities and empower Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) to be financially self-reliant. She said training and providing employable skills as well as working tools was the sustainable way of supporting PWDs to become financially capable and reduce the burden on their families. Madam Marfo was speaking at a durbar to distribute working tools to the first batch of 72 qualified PWDs at Effiduase. The Assembly has 520 registered disabled persons who are benefiting from the Disability Fund and the items were procured from the District Disability Fund to assist them in their business ventures to generate enough income to improve on their living conditions. Madam Marfo said government’s strategy was to use the disability fund to provide working tools and equipment to enable disabled persons to either start or expand their businesses to make them financially sound. She said the Assembly was also supporting the educational and medical needs of disabled persons as part of the social security and protection and appealed to disabled persons in the District to collaborate with the Department of Social Welfare to ensure prompt disbursement of the fund. Mr Emmanuel Adjei Baafi, the Presiding Member of the Assembly encouraged the disabled persons not to underrate their potentials and capabilities and urged them to make effective use of the resources provided to grow their businesses. Mrs. Magdalene Awusie Rockson, the Social Welfare Director for the District advised them to desist from street begging since that demeaned their status. GNA
January 2021 Archives
Posted on Jan 19,2021
The Sekyere East District Health Directorate has recorded no maternal dead between January 2021 and June this year. District Health Director, Dr. Dorothy Afuakwa told Adom News’ Kwame Kulenu they used to record huge numbers of material mortality in previous years, particularly the rural areas. But the figures have been reducing in recent years until it reached zero since last year. Available data from the district indicate in 2015, there were five maternal deaths out 1,861 deliveries, while in 2016, two mothers died out of 2,044 deliveries; but in 2017, all mothers survived out of 1,934 deliveries and so far no mother has died from 1,072 births up to June 2018. Dr. Dorothy Afuakwa said they did not have resources to intervene until World Vision came to the District with health intervention programs, and helped to build one CHPS Compound, which is now being used as OPD, labour ward and other for healthcare purposes. She said World Vision also educated pregnant women on the dos and don’ts, including eating habits, and that is what has helped to arrive at the zero maternal death for one and a half years. “World Vision also helps to train health officers to build their knowledge on health delivery and also train community volunteers to assist the health staff,” she said World Vision also educated mothers on regular breastfeeding, which has also reduced infant mortality rate in the District. Dorothy Afuakwa, however, stated that the Health Directorate lacks vehicles and staff accommodation. She said some workers travel between 45 minutes and 1.30 hours from Kumasi to work every day. This, she said, was undermining quality health delivery in the District. Some breastfeeding mothers told Adom News that children failed to give regular breast milk for six months, are not growing well, but those who got consistent breastfeeding, after sensitization by World Vision are growing faster, stronger and smarter. They thanked World Vision for their support.
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