Accra People Should Stop Dictating District Development Priorities
I was excited when the Minister of Finance announced in the 2025 budget presentation to Parliament in March 2025 that henceforth Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) will directly receive at least 80% of the allocation from the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF).
President Mahama re-echoed that in various public comments.
I was however disappointed when the President and his Cabinet (Accra People) decided to wholly determine how MMDAs should utilize their DACF allocation as announced by the Minister of Finance in Parliament on 3rd June 2025.
The allocation is 25% for design and construction of 24-hour economy model markets; 10% for construction of schools; 10% for sanitation; 10% for health facilities; 10% for provision of water; 10% for provision of school furniture; 10% for environmental sanitation; 10% for provision of school furniture; 20% for completing structures left behind by Middle Belt Development Authority, Coastal Development Authority, and Northern Development Authority as applicable.
This standard allocation gives no regard to the unique circumstances of each MMDA, their development plans and priorities.
It is a partial reset of DACF expenditure allocation, not a complete reset.
The Case of Ga East Municipal Assembly (GEMA)
I live in the Ga East Municipal Assembly (GEMA) with Abokobi as its capital. I have been Secretary to the Residents Association in my area for almost ten years.
Last month, GEMA conducted stakeholder engagements with residents of the municipality on the Development Plan for 2025 – 2028.
I participated in the meeting for my electoral area. The discussion was intense and lasted for more than two hours. Roads and drainage emerged as our topmost priority.
Other important matters that came up were drug abuse by youth, road safety and the absence of speed ramps at points with high pedestrian traffic, and irregular waste collection by Zoomlion.
Participants at the meeting demanded from GEMA their method for calculating property rates for 2025 and their intended utilization of the associated revenue so that residents could hold them accountable.
Most significantly, out of the 83 participants that attended the meeting, there was only one youth. He was a Minister of the Presbyterian Church where the meeting was held.
In effect, youth participation at the meeting was zero and their needs were not expressed.
The youth, who form majority of our population, are disconnected from local government.
I have attended a couple of GEMA stakeholder meetings in the last ten years. The meetings are largely attended by landlords and property owners with a significant number of senior citizens and pensioners.
The Case of New Juaben South Municipal Assembly (NJSMA)
On Page 7 of the Saturday, June 7, 2025 edition of the Daily Graphic there is a news report of a town hall meeting held in Koforidua on the Municipality’s action plan for 2025.
The theme was ‘’Youth Inclusion in Governance: A key to Achieving Sustainable Development’’.
It was attended by the Municipal Chief Executive, assembly members, chiefs, religious leaders, youth groups, traders, among others. It was sponsored by Star Ghana Foundation and BOTNAR Foundation of Switzerland.
Participants concerns were perennial flooding, poor drainage, bad roads, non-functioning street lights, jobs, expansion of the Koforidua central market, water, refuse collection, and drug abuse.
Citizen Needs from Political Surveys
I was part of an Eagles Forum (a social democratic group) team that conducted voter surveys in selected constituencies in 2020.
In the Adenta constituency, the number one need was jobs. It was followed by healthcare, security, education and infrastructure in that order.
In the Wulensi constituency, the topmost priority was water. This was followed by electricity, the Eastern Corridor Road and jobs. The need for a yam market came up but was ranked low.
Another voter survey in the Birim South District in 2023 elicited jobs as the topmost need. It was followed by roads and sanitation particularly public toilets.
My Experience as a Development Worker
I have travelled extensively in Ghana as a development worker.
Among others, I have worked with MMDAs, farmers, processors, commodity buyers and aggregators, tractor and mechanization service providers on agribusiness development. The goal has always been increased productivity, increased incomes and decent work for these largely small-scale market players.
I have not come across a single MMDA that has an efficient and effective agriculture extension service to support smallholder crop and livestock farmers.
Invariably, they do not have enough staff. When they do, they do not have motorcycles and other logistics. And when they have motorcycles, they do not have fuel, and so on.
So, district agricultural extension staff receive their monthly salaries and spend a good portion of their working hours in their offices rather than being on the field supporting farmers. The only exception is when there is some Ministry of Food and Agriculture project or Non-Government Organization (NGO) providing logistics.
MMDAs also have Environmental and Health Officers EHOs (the Saman Saman People) who have a mandate to ensure food safety under the Public Health Act 851, 2012.
On one of my past projects in the oil palm sector, our team collaborated with the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) to build the capacity of EHOs in more than seventy MMDAs in the oil palm belt of Ghana.
In turn, EHOs were expected to assist artisanal palm oil producers improve their product quality and food safety and ultimately apply and receive FDA certification. Afterward, they could sell their palm oil to supermarkets in Ghana and exporters.
The knowledge and skills the EHOs received from the FDA was applicable to other food products.
However, there was very little field work from the trained EHOs. Their MMDAs had zero or little logistics to support them.
The Department of Cooperatives at MMDAs are impoverished. Yet they are crucial to mobilizing and organizing the youth, small-scale market actors and the informal sector to produce efficiently and effectively, generate income and decent work.
The Evidence from the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS)
Last month, GSS published the Ghana 2024 Integrated Business Establishment Survey (IBES 2024). It says there are about 1.9 million business entities (formal and informal) in the country.
The 10 districts at the bottom with the least number of establishments span across nine regions.
They include Adaklu in Volta; Builsa South in Upper East, Mamprugu Moagduri in North East, Birim South in Eastern, North Gonja in Savanah, Banda in Bono, Akrofuom in Ashanti, Daffiama Bussie Issa in Upper West, Akatsi North in Volta, and Sekyere Afram Plains in Ashanti.
These districts have a very low production base with very limited economic and job opportunities for their residents. This represents a weak revenue base for those MMDAs.
What is the point for these MDMAs to utilize 25% of their DACF allocation to construct a 24-hour economy market? These physical markets will be used once or twice a week on market days.
Poor feeder roads to communities, and not the absence of physical markets, have been the primary barrier to trade of agricultural inputs and food. That is what needs urgent attention.
Conclusion
We need a complete reset of local government where citizens and residents fully participate in setting their local development agenda, determine spending priorities, eagerly pay their fair share of local taxes and levies, join in the implementation and monitoring of projects, and hold their MMDCEs, Assembly men and women, and Unit Committee members accountable for results.
MMDAs should collaborate with the National Youth Authority and Civil Society Organizations to develop and implement actions to attract youth to participate in local governance. It should include the use of social media.
The government should use the next three and half years till 2028 to deepen citizen participation and confidence in local government. This will set the stage for electing MMDCEs as Ghanaians have long desired.
Nicholas Issaka Gbana
nissakagbana@gmail.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicholas-issaka-gbana-98478536/
https://web.facebook.com/n.issaka.gbana
@GbanaIssaka
The writer is a Development Economist, Chartered Accountant and Consultant
