Mr Samuel Larbi Agyarko, the Zonal Coordinator for the Gulf of Guinea Northern Regions Social Cohesion (SOCO) project for the Upper East and North East Regions, says all 582 infrastructural projects under the 2023 cycle sub-projects will be completed in May 2024. He said management of the project in its routine visits to project sites across the zone observed that all the 582 projects were within the time frame. 'We hope that by May, all the 582 projects for the entire project for 2023 will be completed'. Mr Agyarko disclosed this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at a quarterly zonal meeting of the project in Bolgatanga, the Upper East Regional capital. The meeting, attended by Dr Hafiz Bin-Salih, the Upper East Regional Minister and the Minister for the North East Region, Mr Yidana Zakaria, brought together Municipal and District Chief Executives and their Coordinating Directors from across the two Regions. It offered management of the SOCO project the opportunity to update them on the variou s construction stages of the projects in their respective areas. The SOCO project, launched in Bolgatanga in November 2020 by the Vice President, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, is a multi-country US$450 million credit facility from the World Bank implemented in Ghana, Cote d' Ivoire, Togo and Benin. The Government of Ghana was allocated US$150 million out of the total amount for projects in 48 Districts across the Upper East Region, Northern, Savannah, North East, Upper West and Oti Regions. The project is aimed at providing support to the Northern parts of the Gulf of Guinea countries, which suffer instabilities owing to food insecurity, climate change, conflict and violence. Mr Agyarko said the Upper East Region benefitted from 211 projects and the North East Region had 54 projects, adding that 'For Upper East, 27 projects are completed. We have handed some over, especially the rehabilitation of the schools, and they are in use. 'For North East, 10 projects are completed. Mostly, school blocks, and we are also in the process of handing them over for use,' he said. Mr Agyarko said other projects, including Community-based Health Planning and Services (CHPS) compounds, would be commissioned in May and handed over for use. He mentioned delay in the execution of some of the projects in some Districts as a challenge management faced in the project implementation, and attributed the delay to the selection of unskilled labour. 'Some of them said the rate of GHS50.00 per day was inadequate for them, and that accounted for delay in selection, and caused the delay in the implementation,' he explained. The Zonal Coordinator said the issue was addressed and works on the various projects were in progress, and indicated that in the 2024 cycle sub-projects, management envisaged to execute 418 sub-projects within the North East and Upper East Regions. He said they were expected to start the 2024 projects across the Zone in June with an allocated amount of US$72 million. Dr Bin-Salih, the Regional Minister, in his addres s, expressed the hope that the SOCO project would improve the living conditions of residents in the beneficiary Municipalities and Districts. 'Let all of us put our acts together to ensure that the projects are well implemented. The first phase is at its end, and we are just about rolling out the phase two of the SOCO project. It is my expectation that we will bring phase one to a successful closure, so that we can proceed to launch the phase two,' he said. Source: Ghana News Agency
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