Posted Nov 25, 2020

Martina leads Ahafo Ahafo Ano North Municipal in Covid-19 fight

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The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of the Ahafo Ano North Municipal Assembly in the Ashanti Region Martina Appiah Nyantekyie has as part of measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 lead a team to educate market women about some preventive measures. The team, made up of health professionals and members of the Assembly visited the Tepa market last Thursday. The team among other things cautioned both market women and traders to practise basic hygiene and ensure healthy lifestyle. Among the basic hygiene practices, the team taught was hand washing. Here, the MCE through a demonstration showed the onlookers how to effectively wash the hand. Through the demonstration, the MCE mentioned that hand washing must take at least 20 seconds and must be done thoroughly under running water. The MCE used the occasion to donate some veronica buckets to the market and urge both traders and patrons to put it into good use. Interacting with the traders, the Municipal Health Director Mr. Joseph Adomako admonished them to take their health into their own hands by observing all the precautions prescribed by the Ghana Health service. Throwing light on social distancing, the Health Director stated, it has become very necessary and proven to be one of the major means of fighting the pandemic and advised that the public should desist from not so important travels and avoid handshaking. On hand sanitizers, the Director stated that its application is also good and appealed to the traders to reduce the cost to make it affordable for all. Mr Adomako also used the occasion to advice the public to adopt both coughing and sneezing on the elbow as part of our culture. In all the team was able to interact with at least 1000 people as the day was a market day. On every Thursday, the market attracts 1000s of patrons from across the country and even beyond. Traders come as far as from neighbouring Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Nigeria.

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Posted October 15, 2020

Madam Martina Appiah-Nyantakyi, the Ahafo-Ano North Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), has handed over about 400 pieces of furniture to pupils and teachers in eleven basic schools in that area.

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She said the aim was to ease congestion in the classrooms to make teaching and learning comfortable for both teachers and pupils. The beneficiary schools are Kotei Nkwanta, Akyena M/A, Akrofoso M/A, Siawkrom M/A, Tepa SDA primary and Anyinasuso Presbyterian schools. Manfo Islamic, Nyameadom M/A, Tepa English Arabic Primary, Suponso M/A and Asuhyeae RC, are the others. A recent visit by the MCE and her team together with some Municipal education service officials to the schools revealing the deplorable state of the furniture used by the teachers and pupils, necessitated the donation. Most pupils had no furniture at all, and the limited number that were in a very bad state, were also being used by just few pupils. Madam Appiah-Nyantakyi advised the beneficiaries to cultivate good maintenance culture for the items to last longer. The Assembly she said, was going to ensure that teachers and pupils were comfortable at their posts. Mr. Oti Boakye, the Human Resource officer for the Municipal Education Service, lauded the Assembly for their gesture and asked that they continued to provide more of logistical support.

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Posted October 5, 2020

Several youth in the Ahafo Ano North Municipality in the Ashanti Region have been enrolled onto the government’s flagship agric intervention programme, ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ (PFJ).

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The development, according to Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Martina Appiah-Nyantakyi has led a drastic reduction of youth unemployment situation especially, among youth in the area. The MCE, who was speaking in an interview with Ghanadistricts.com, disclosed that the youth were engaged in maize, cabbage, cucumber, carrot, garden eggs, pepper and ginger production for both local and foreign markets. She added that the farmers were supported with seedlings and various farm inputs including fertilizers, NPK to help enhance their farming activities. Meanwhile, the MCE has also reiterated the government’s commitment to collaborate with the private investors to further enhance development in the agric sector of the country. “As a government that sees the private sector as the engine of economic growth, we will continue to create the enabling environment to encourage individuals and private entities to invest in the country’s Agriculture for mutual benefit” the soft-spoken MCE noted. She therefore ceased the opportunity to encourage other unemployed youth in the area to take advantage and get enrolled onto the programme in order help change their fortunes.

Posted Sept 26, 2020

Ahafo Ano North to get rice mill under CIPA project

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A rice mill is set to be constructed in the Ahafo Ano North Municipality of the Ashanti Region under government’s industrialisation drive. Under the special rice farming initiative, the municipality is expecting at least 3,000 bags of rice seeds to be cultivated on over 6,000 acres of farmlands. The factory will be established with a grant from the Japanese government whiles the Municipal Assembly secures the site for the project. Farmers to be engaged in this project would be assisted by the Africa Rice Center to employ modern technology for enhanced production. Municipal Chief Executive of the area, Martina Appiah-Nyanyakyi, explains that the project, when completed, could make the municipal a leading rice producer in the country. She made these revelations as part of her sessional address at a just ended assembly meeting held at Tepa Municipal Director for Agriculture, Samuel Ankomah, explained that the initiative will be under the project titled, ‘Capitalising Inland valley Potential for food and nutrition security for smallholder farmers in West Africa. (CIPA)’ According to him, the project will test and promote an integrated best-bet and best-fit land use planning. It will also employ a system of Natural Resource Management and a crop production approach in inland valleys to achieve food nutrition security in West Africa. CIPA’s activities are funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), with implementation in Ghana and Ivory Coast simultaneously. Africa Rice Center is the implementer and Soil Research Institute (SRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) as the national partner. Meanwhile, the assembly has made a request to the Food and Agriculture Ministry for the supply of farm implements to aid the farmers in the venture. It is estimated that annually at least 3.7 tons of rice is produced by the municipality.

Other Agriculture Initiatives

In a related development, the Ahafo Ano North Municipal Assembly intends to raise 24,000 oil palm seedlings and 8,600 citrus seedlings at its nursery site in Tepa to be distributed to farmers to support oil palm and citrus productions. The programme, which is under the Planting for Export and Rural Development Programme ( PERD), in 2018 raised 12,000 oil palm seedlings covering 200 acres of farmland and distributed to at least 132 farmers upon maturity for the establishment of their oil palm farms. Again, 21,750 coffee seedlings which will cover 50 acres of farmland have been raised and are ready to be supplied freely to farmers for cultivation in the Municipality.

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Posted September 10, 2020

A/R: Forestry Commission destroys 8-hectare of food crops at Desiri

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The Mankranso command of the Forestry Commission has destroyed what they say is illegal farms in the Desiri forest reserves located in the Asutifi and Ahafo Ano North districts in Ashanti region. The move was triggered after the management discovered large farms in the reserve without approval of the forestry commission, district manager Godwin Agyeman disclosed. Range manager, Palmer Aikins Amponsah in an interview with Ultimate FM’s Isaac Bediako said the exercise saw destruction of eight hectares of cultivated farm food crops. The exercise which was executed with the support of the military and the commission’s guards will continue next week Wednesday 19 September 2018, to free the forest reserve from encroachers. A visit to the forest reserve by the media witnessed activities of the encroachers destructing cedralla and teak trees to be harvested by government in its maturity stage. Checks revealed over one thousand trees have been felled, burnt and destroyed with chemicals by the illegal farmers. The Range manager disclosed that, “the plantations if allowed for few years will mature for harvest to bring a lot of revenue to the State but illegal farmers are clearing the plantations for their self-interest. On the 12th of September staff of the forestry commission and over 60 Youth in afforestation (YEA) members from Tepa ,Mehame, Dadesoaba and Siencheim communities went to the farms to destruction crops on the illegal farmers” he said. He noted “crops destroyed include cocoa, maize, cocoyam, and Yam, interestingly while destroying we also planted tress seedlings to replace the lost trees due to activities of the farmers. The trees planted are varieties of both exotic and indigenous species”. He also revealed that illegal farmers arrested in the Desiri forest reserve have been arraigned before court for prosecution. “I will like to use this opportunity to advice illegal farmers farming illegally here to seize their lawless activities or face the thoroughness of the law” he pleaded.