The people said the recent government policies including the planting for Food and jobs, Nations Builders Corps (NABCO), the Free Senior High School programme and the upcoming one village one dam, were viable programmes that would take them out of poverty and they had to work hard to make them sustainable.

They said this at a town hall meeting of the District at Pusiga in the Upper East Region, organized by the Ministry of Information (MOI) in collaboration with the Information Service Department (ISD) to elaborate on government policies that were being executed and had made positive impact on the lives of the people.

Naba Ibrahim Agonri Ayomah, the Chief of Pusiga, who spoke on behalf of the people, said government programmes such as the planting for food and jobs had helped the people to expand their Agricultural production this year and got good yields from their farms.

Naba Ayomah said issues such as smuggling and petty stealing had reduced, while employment increased because many young people engaged in agricultural activities this year.

He said the youth were too busy to think of looking for jobs elsewhere and the annual migration from the area to the southern sector in search of jobs would be reduced, if all the policies were put in place.

The Chief further commended government for the construction of the 1,000 metric tonnes agriculture ware house at pusiga to compliment the planting for food and jobs programme.

Naba Ayomah charged stakeholders in the area to support the sustainability of the programme so that it would help eradicate poverty in the area, and urged the youth to take the opportunity to improve their lives.

Mr Zubeiru Abdulai, the District Chief Executive (DCE), in a presentation noted that the District had been successful in the implementation of the livelihood empowerment programmes, making it secure over 98 percent on the District league table on the Functional Organization Assessment Tool (FOAT) in the Region.

Mr Abdulai said education in the District had improved as the Assembly provided adequate infrastructure and restructured the school feeding programme, which increased the enrolment numbers in the various schools in the area.

He said the District received over 500 dual desks and other school furniture, which it distributed to basic schools to promote teaching and learning in the area.

Mr Abdulai said the Ministry of Special Development Initiative had allocated about GHC500,000.00 to the Assembly for the construction of three-unit classroom blocks in some communities in the area.

Touching on health, Mr Abdulai said the District had implemented a number of key projects to uplift the health status in the area, including the construction a maternity ward and supplied clinical equipment to the Kulungugu Health Center to facilitate quality health delivery.

The DCE said about 89 prospective applicants had been successfully enrolled under the NABCO programme to start work and urged all stakeholders to cooperate with them in the discharge of their duties.

Mr Abdulai called on land owners to release their lands for the District to embark on development projects for the wellbeing of the people in the area.

Mr Benin Issifu, the Upper East Regional Information Officer, said the purpose of the meeting was to allow duty bearers to elaborate policies that had been executed or were yet to be done to the citizenry.

Mr Issifu said the Townhall deliberations were nationwide exercises that would allow the citizenry to participate effectively in the decision making process, so as to enable the citizery make their inputs for effective governance.