The Yilo Krobo Municipal Assembly (YKMA) on Friday, the 30th of December 2022 held its third ordinary meeting of the third session of the third Assembly being its last meeting for the year 2022.

The meeting was ushered in by the Presiding Member (PM), Hon. Robert Kwasi Agede who thanked all Assembly members for the sacrificial work they had done so far without pay. The PM however lamented, that though the Assembly members were not remunerated, after working so hard to promote and deepen democratic governance at the local level, the ex gratia of Assembly members who worked in the 7th Assembly of which the current Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Hon. Eric Tetteh was a member had not been paid to date and pleaded with the MCE to do something about it. It must however be noted, that this plea by the PM had bisected all his addresses for the year.

The PM also indicated his awareness of the many developmental challenges that the Yilo Krobo Municipality faced at the moment, all of which cannot be solved at the same time with the limited resources, but pleaded with the MCE and management to take the sanitation problems as top priority. The PM also pleaded for Assembly members to be assisted with tools to undertake communal labour in their respective electoral areas even as he expressed gratitude for street lights supplied by management to the various electoral areas.

In his address, the MCE, Hon. Eric Tetteh as well expressed his profound appreciation to all Assembly members for their sacrificial assignment carried out so far and also thanked Members who participated in the maiden Yilo State Homecoming Summit on Tuesday, 27th December 2022, the purpose of which was to rally all citizens of Yilo Krobo to ensure the development of Yilo. The MCE however indicated, that though the Homecoming summit idea developed with the support of the august house was apt and there was no doubt that it would yield the desired dividend if carried through to its logical conclusion, it would come with challenges along the way and pressed on members to do everything possible to ensure its success.

On Finance, the MCE indicated that the august house approved a budget estimate of Gh¢1,568,565.21 as the Internally Generated Funds (IGF) component of a total budgeted figure of Gh¢12,230,720.12 and out of this figure, an amount of Gh¢1,145,014.89 was collected as revenue as of 29th December 2022 representing 73% performance and a 10% performance over the last year’s figure and a clear hope of the Assembly’s potential to collect more revenue if the necessary instruments and attitudes were deployed. The need to accelerate the revenue base of the Assembly has become imperative more than ever before as the District Assembly Common Fund (DACF) though “undoubtedly the major source of funding for development … meant to complement and not a substitute to already existing revenue generating programmes of the Assembly”, often delays which could frustrate the action plan of the Assembly. However, the MCE disclosed that the Assembly budgeted for an amount of Gh¢4,500,509.85 to be received as DACF and received Gh¢815,151.24 for three quarters representing 18% of the Assembly’s budget figure. Therefore, the right disposition to enhance the revenue base of the Assembly was to “assume that the DACF does not exist”, stressed the MCE.

It is worthy of note, that for sometimes now and spanning from the previous two administrations, the Boti Falls Resort which was expected to rake in major revenue for the Assembly had been saddled with some issues relative to the contractual agreement between the Assembly and the developer and the MCE used the opportunity to inform the house that he was hopeful that the issues would be resolved as the committee put in place under his watch to put an end to the issues was making progress.

On Livelihood Empowerment against Poverty (LEAP) program, the MCE disclosed that a total amount of Gh¢225,782.00 for the 79th and 80th payment cycles had been paid to 1,446 households comprising 348 males and 1,098 females. People living with disability on the other hand were also supported within the period with an amount of GH¢49,896.00 in various income generating activities with Gh¢12,376.00 as educational support to same bracket group.

Various reports and proposals from the Executive Committee were presented to the General Assembly for ratification and among them included; 5% component of DACF used for completion of self-help projects, Akorwu Bana Clinic be commissioned and put to operation, Assembly should take up the renovation of Sra Presby ‘A’ School, Water connection restored to Akutunya toilet facility, that Management provides refuse containers to Akweteman and its environs, that the Assembly and Police enforce within the boundaries of the municipality the 15.3% reduction in transport fares, management to consider upgrading the package for the overall Best Farmer Award winner, and management should acquire motorbikes for health workers to facilitate their outreach activities.

The MCE also disclosed management’s decision to complete all on-going projects especially those funded from DACF-RFG (Response Factor Grant)