A photograph of the Chiefs and queen mothers
Chiefs from the eastern corridor of the Brong-Ahafo Region gathered at ENCOM Hotel in Techiman on Friday, August 11, 2017 to brainstorm on the proposed creation of the Brong East Region.
In attendance were MPs, DCEs, Deputy Minister of Regional Re-organization and Development and a cross-section of chiefs from all the traditional areas.
The chiefs were taken through a PowerPoint presentation by Isaac Sarpong, Assistant to Prof. Christopher Ameyaw Akumfi (former education minister), indicating that at the time of the creation of the Brong-Ahafo Region in 1959, the population was 561,000 but currently it is 2,319,933 and as such, there is the need for the region to be divided.
According to Isaac Sarpong, the growth rate of the Brong-Ahafo Region is 2.3%, which is slightly above the national average of 2.18% as at 2016.
Mr Sarpong said the size of the region is 39,557 sq. km, representing 16.6% of the total land size of Ghana and that the region is the second largest in Ghana.
According to Mr. Sarpong, the proposed Brong East Region has a total land area of 25,313 sq km, representing 64% of the entire land mass of the whole Brong-Ahafo Region or 10.6% of Ghana’s total land size. Mr. Sarpong said according to the Housing Census in 2010, the population of the proposed East Brong Region was 993,895 and the population is projected to rise to 1,222,000 by 2020.
Answering a question as to why the need for the creation of a another region, Mr. Sarpong said when the new region is created it will deepen local governance and bring government, its agencies and their activities closer to the people. He said the new region will have its share of statutory funds for development and other activities as stipulated by the Constitution, increase traditional representation at the national level, among other things.
Martin Adjei Mensah Korsah, Deputy Minister of Regional Re-organization and Development, said the creation of a new region is not as easy as some people think.
He said everything would have to get a legal backing.
He said now that the petitions had been presented to the president and the Council of State had advised him (president) to go ahead, “it now lies on the lap of the president to form a committee to go round the proposed new regions to gather information which will give him insightful knowledge of the proposed regions before a referendum is organized by the EC, which will determine whether the region is needed by the people or not.”
He appealed to the gathering to take politics out of the whole process since the creation of a new region will bring development to the people, irrespective of one’s political leanings.
FROM Eric Bawah, Techiman