The Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) has secured a US$1 million funding from New York-based Bloomberg Philanthropies, a philanthropic organisation which focuses its resources on five areas of environment, public health, the arts, government innovation and education.
In 2021, the KMA was selected as one of 50 champion cities from 614 cities around the globe in the Global Mayors Challenge competition, after it had presented the 2022-2025 Medium Term Development Plan based on the National Medium Term Development Policy Framework.
The KMA proposed management’s continuous engagements with Assembly members in fashioning out solutions to common problems in the metropolis.
As part of its prize, the KMA has received a Toyota Hilux from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) which is managing the funds provided by Bloomberg Philanthropies, to ensure mobility in the beneficiary communities under the project.
The KMA has also taken delivery of assorted logistics, including laptop, printer, projector and a screen, as well as office accommodation located at Moshie Zongo, a suburb of Kumasi.
The project has three components, made up of the construction of private toilets, finance and youth training.
The logistics, means basically to help with the implementation of the project, were presented to the KMA by Mr. Seth Akumani, Head of Exploration, UNDP Ghana, and Dr. Catherine Adodoadji-Dogbe, Innovation in Public Services Lead at the Global Mayors Challenge and Programme Analyst, UNDP Ghana representative.
Mr. Akumani said the UNDP was passionate about supporting the vulnerable as the project was aimed at covering the two key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to provide access to adequate sanitation and achieving full employment and productive work for women and youth to have skills and be part of the project.
He hoped the project would address the challenges for which it was instituted, and that Kumasi would live up to expectation.
The Metro Coordinating Director, Mr. Francis Dwira Darko, representing the Mayor, Mr. Sam Pyne, noted that the intervention would enable the KMA to ensure proper sanitation, which was the Assembly’s biggest challenge, and to help address and control open defecation.
The Coordinating Director assured that the KMA fully supported the successful implementation of the project.
The Project Officer of the KMA, Mr. Joshua Nii Noye Tetteh-Nortey, said the KMA would set up a revolving fund for the construction of more private places of convenience to benefit more members of the communities through soft loans in order to sustain the project into the years ahead.
He assured that the KMA would not disappoint the benefactor.
