The initiative is under the Ghana Productive Safety Net Project (GPSNP), which is the government’s intervention through the MLGRD to cushion the lives of deprived persons and to contribute to the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal 1 (SDG 1).

SDG 1 aims to eradicate every form of extreme poverty, focusing not just on people living in poverty, but also on the services people rely on and social policy that prevents poverty in the society.

Beneficiary districts

The beneficiary districts of the project are Mion, Nanton, Saboba, Tatale-Sanguli, Zabzugu, Nanumba South and Kpandai, as well as the Gushegu Municipality in the Northern Region, East Gonja Municipality in the Savannah Region and Nkwanta North, Kadjebi, Krachi Nchumuru, Krachi West and Krachi East districts in the Oti Region.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the Zonal Coordinator of the Tamale Zonal Coordinating Office, Mr Samuel Amo-Nimoh, said to achieve the ministry’s aim of bettering the lives of deprived persons, the country had been partitioned into four zones which covered 80 municipalities and districts.

For the purpose of the project’s implementation, he further stated that the Tamale Zone covered over 15 municipal and district assemblies in the Northern, Savannah and Oti regions.

“Most people who are living in extreme poverty are still struggling for the most basic human needs. In the quest to revert this, the government of Ghana has embarked on a good number of pro-poor interventions to reduce poverty, cushion the lives of the poor, the deprived and the needy,” he stated.

Project description

The zonal coordinator indicated that the persons employed under the project were currently working on 62 sub-projects, which were under the intervention across all the partitioned zones that were benefitting from the initiative.

He noted that some were employed to work on the rehabilitation of selected feeder roads and dams across the beneficiary districts and regions in the country.

In addition to the construction works, a significant number of the employees are also into the establishment of climate change mitigation interventions, which include the planting of cashew, oil palm and coconut trees.

“It is gratifying to note that under the Tamale Zone, 18,238 farmers have received a good quantity of cashew seedlings in support of the government’s flagship Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD) programme in the 15 beneficiary municipal and district assemblies,” he added.

Nature of job

Mr Amo-Nimoh said the construction works done by the unskilled personnel included stone pitching, camber formation, ditching, compaction, levelling, concrete mixing, lining and pegging, which were carried out under the technical guidance of the contractors.

The zonal coordinator added that under the seed planting category, agric experts gave capacity-building training to the employees to enable them to successfully nurture and transplant seedlings to achieve the climate change mitigation intervention.

According to Mr Amo-Nimoh, the technical guidance also served as a major technology transfer to the local people, to make them become independent and to function on their own after the end of the contracts.

“The government and the proponents of this project, being mindful of the fact that such interventions do not last forever, have been innovative and carved out additional strategies to complement and consolidate the gains for these low-income beneficiaries,” he indicated.