Koforidua (E/R), July 15, GNA-The Eastern Regional Coordinating Council has held its 2022 first quarter meeting in fulfilment of Section 191 (1) of the Local Governance Act, 2016 (Act 936).
The meeting discussed policies, programmes, and projects undertaken by the Council within the period.
Mr. Seth Kwame Acheampong, the Eastern Regional Minister, told the members that discussions had been held about E-Levy prior to its passage into law, and organised an Eastern Praise and Thanksgiving Service in conjunction with the Local Council of Churches and the Christian Council.
This was the first time such an event was held.
Moreover, he said the region recorded a remarkable performance in quality education service delivery, where students in both basic and senior high schools received various awards.
On health-related issues, Mr Acheampong said the focus had been on COVID-19 and monkey pox situations and that the region had recorded a total COVID-19 cases of 7,351 and 152 deaths, giving a case fatality rate of 2.10 per cent.
He added that a total of 1,101,332 received at least a single dose of the COVID vaccine, representing 45 per cent of the total population, while a total of 125,814 people received the booster dose. The region also recorded two cases of monkey pox in the Akuapem North Municipality, but the individuals have been recovered and discharged.
He said agriculture has improved remarkably and authorities had successfully developed over 60 products for the commodity satellite markets as a strategy to link farmers and processors to ready markets.
This is expected to offer a direct response to the growing demand for quality and safe food and also ensure that smallholder farmers and processors remain competitive both in local and international markets. About 13,685 farmers and small-scale processers are projected to be linked to the markets with a total transaction value of GH¢19,325,400.
He said Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) raked in 436 bags, representing 10.9 metric tonnes of open pollinated variety seed maize and 1,430 bags (35.77 metric tonnes) of hybrid seed maize, which were distributed.
Again, a total of 504 bags of rice seed representing 20.16 metric tonnes were distributed and a total of 3,220 bags of inorganic fertilizer representing 80.5 metric tonnes were also distributed to farmers.
Under the Planting for Export and Rural Development modules, he said a total of 1,018,504 oil palm seedlings were distributed to farmers, in addition to 5,000 cockerels and 898 pigs.
According to him, under the Greenhouse Technology Village Module, farmers, after making some gains from their vegetable production in government allocated greenhouses, purchased 146 greenhouses on their own.
Mr. Acheampong described the security situation as generally calm but noted that the chieftaincy institution continues to pose a lot of challenges which are undermining peace and security. “These disputes are regrettably affecting our progress and development,” he said, highlighting the issues in Akuapem and Akwamufie, which have now been resolved.
He said the Eastern Region had a total of 104 kilometres of town roads, which had seen some minor rehabilitation/partial reconstruction and upgrading improvements carried out between 2017 and June 2022.
The Department of Feeder Roads also carried out routine maintenance and reshaping of 246 km2 out of 2,143.03 km2, representing 11 per cent coverage.
However, he said for periodic maintenance, there was a 46 per cent achievement as 37.40 km were done out of 81.70 km.
He said road traffic crashes and casualties have seen a decline this year as compared to 2021.
GNA