By Yussif Ibrahim,
Nintin (Ash), Dec. 15, GNA – An aspiring assembly member for the Nintin electoral area in the Asante Mampong municipality, has promised to make the community a destination for organic banana in Ghana.
Mr. Nicholas Osei-Wusu, a Broadcast Journalist with the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), said his main occupation as an assembly member would be to ensure that the women in the town benefited immensely from the banana trade in the community.
Nintin, which is located immediately after the famous Mampong Scarp from the Kumasi direction, is known as the hub of banana in the Ashanti region, where most women predominantly trade and hawk banana along the main Kumasi-Mampong Highway.
It is the economic mainstay of the inhabitants especially the women folks whose main target market is the commuters and motorists who patronize the commodity during stopovers.
Speaking during a campaign platform created for aspiring |Assembly Members to sell their messages to the electorate, Mr. Osei-Wusu said the situation gave Nintin an opportunity to create wealth and economic empowerment for the women to improve household incomes.
“In this socio-economic plan, I intend to, with the cooperation and support of all interested individuals and groups, leverage on my media advantage to promote Nintin to become the destination of choice in Ghana for organic banana, just as Akomadan is associated with tomatoes,” he told the electorate.
The expectation, according to him, was that if the plan succeeded, the women, who trade in the commodity, would enjoy astronomical patronage from across the country to increase their sales and incomes.
Mr Osei-Wusu who is a Regional Correspondent of the GBC in Ashanti region, also spoke about plans to address the acute water shortage in the electoral area, which was adversely impacting economic activities and school attendance.
“If elected, I plan to continue with the initial steps I took with some of the leaders of Nintin in seeking extension of pipe borne water from Mampong or seek any other viable alternative reliable water sources to serve the people,” he assured.
He said poor sanitation remained a major concern especially in Nintin such that open defecation was a common practice due to lack of any decent alternative as against the obvious health and hygiene consequences.
“I will, therefore, intensify my plea with the Greater Kumasi Metropolitan Area Water and Sanitation programme towards addressing the problem in order to resolve the poor sanitation and environmental hygiene condition in the two towns”.
Presently, residents of the two communities are battling attacks by strange insects which bites are subtle but leave people with rashes and other uncomfortable skin conditions.
To address this health concern, Mr. Osei-Wusu, said he would liaise with the Municipal Environmental Health Directorate as well as the Municipal Health Directorate to identify the actual causative issues with the view to tackling the root cause of this serious health concern of the people.
To bring local governance closer to the people, he promised to, as much as possible, hold periodic meetings with the two communities and their opinion leaders, in accordance with the Local Government Act, to seek their views on issues and take them to assembly meetings for consideration.
GNA