Kuoro Alhaji Iddrisu Bamie Yesseh III, Paramount Chief of the Lambussie Traditional Area, has appealed to the government, donor agencies and non-governmental organisations to assist in addressing some of the development challenges of the area.
He said the Lambussie/Karni District was still crawling to catch up with the other districts in the region in terms of development and mentioned inadequate residential accommodation for workers, education infrastructure, health facilities and poor roads as some of the challenges affecting the development of the area.
Kuoro Alhaji Iddrisu Bamie Yesseh made the appeal at the "Mifele" (new millet) Festival of the chiefs and people of the Lambussie Traditional Area on Sunday.
The "Mifele" Festival is an annual event celebrated by the people to thank God and their ancestors for giving them good harvest during the season.
He acknowledged the government's efforts to address the inadequate basic school infrastructure in the district but expressed regret that many of the nursery schools were still conducted under trees.
On agriculture, he said, it had been the mainstay of the people but that there were inadequate provision of agricultural facilities to make farmers productive all year round.
Kuoro Alhaji Iddrisu Bamie Yesseh appealed to the government to provide fertilizers, chemicals, combine harvesters and irrigation dams as well as marketing services to farmers in the area to enable them to go into large scale farming.
He also appealed to the government to consider the establishment of a technical and vocational training school in the area to cater for the numerous senior high school leavers from Lambussie/Karni, Jirapa and Lawra districts.
Alhaji Issahaque Salia, the Upper West Regional Minister, said youth unemployment had become a serious developmental challenge in the political landscape.
He said the government was therefore embarking on the job creation and skills acquisition as a surest way of ensuring sustainable development for the youth.
He said the government and its development partners were therefore introducing several interventions to reposition the youth in the economy through the expansion of the Youth Employment Programme to serve as a spring board for graduates to leap into the job market.
Alhaji Salia said the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, in collaboration with other partners, had introduced a Social Opportunity Project which entails community work under the labour intensive public works.
Alhaji Salia said the mode of implementation entails the rehabilitation and maintenance of rural feeder and access roads, the rehabilitation of small dams and related public infrastructure and other works including construction of schools and clinics, dug-outs, soil and land conservation works for catchments works and tree planting on communal lands.
He therefore urged the youth to reposition themselves in readiness to benefit from the project.