Daasebre Emeritus Oti Boateng, Omanhene of New Juaben Traditional District, has asked that Koforidua be elevated to a metropolitan area.
According to statistics, Koforidua, which was divided into New Juaben North and South Municipalities, had all of the requisite parameters, including population, for the establishment of a metropolis, and he urged the government to work towards achieving that status.
He said that in order for a city to be designated as a Metropolis, it must have a significant population as well as many surrounding areas with a high degree of economic and social integration, and that “Koforidua has it all and so deserves to be a metropolitan area.”
When Mr Seth Acheampong, the newly named Eastern Regional Minister, paid him a courtesy call, Daasebre Oti Boateng made the call.
Koforidua’s elevation to a metropolis, he said, has been long overdue.
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According to the former Government statistician, Koforidua was well ahead of Cape Coast in terms of metropolis criteria, but it was also a metropolitan city, and that “for Koforidua to stay at municipal status is a disservice to the people and is a minus to the many positive things that President Akufo-government Addo’s is doing.”
He urged the Regional Minister to introduce his Root-Based Economic Development (r-BED) Model in all of the Region’s conventional areas to accelerate progress and much-needed economic change.
The Omanhene clarified that the r-BED had been tried and tested in a number of developing economies, including China, and urged the government to follow the model as the foundation of the country’s national growth agenda for the people’s good.
In response, the Regional Minister thanked the Omanhene and pledged to collaborate with the area’s traditional authorities so that, with their wealth of expertise, such as the r-BED model, the Eastern Region might become a model region in Ghana.
Mr Samuel Donkor, Chief Director of the Eastern Regional Coordinating Council (ERCC), Mr Isaac Appau-Gyasi, New Juaben South MCE, Ms Comfort Asante, New Juaben North MCE, Mr Seth Antwi Bosiako, Kwaebibirim MCE, and Mr Kwame Appiah Koduah, Regional Organizer of the NPP, accompanied the Minister.
SOURCE: ATLFMONLINE
