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Tamale, Ghana – Dr. Angela Lusigi, Ghana Country Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has indicated an Integrated Assembly Financing Framework (IAFF) the former and its partners developed to help MMDAs, led to the development of revenue improvement action plans as well as medium term plans in these MMDAs.
According to Dr. Lusigi, the IAFF had played a key role in helping some six selected Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in six regions across the country to improve on their revenue generation efforts which were adversely affected during the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak.
“And we’re proud to say this IAFF has informed the development of revenue improvement action plans as well as medium term development plans among other vital plans in these MMDAs”, she said at a one-day stakeholders workshop in Tamale on Thursday.
In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, most of MMDAs were badly affected especially in the area of revenue generation internally due to various measures put in place by the government to control the spread of the disease.
The disease prevention measures made it impossible for the MMDAs to mobilize revenue because businesses closed down. This also impacted negatively on the MMDAs ability to provide critical services like health, education, water, sanitation and road infrastructure among others to their people.
The pandemic brought to the fore the unpreparedness of most MMDAs which made them vulnerable to any kind of economic shocks including natural disasters and pandemic outbreaks.
The situation compelled the NDPC, Ministry of Finance and the UNDP to join efforts and conduct a diagnostic assessment on the performance of some six selected MMDAs across the country in the area of revenue generation, challenges and opportunities from 2021 to 2022. The outcome of their assessments led to the implementation of what is known as the IAFF in the selected pilot MMDAs.
As a result, tailor made training modules and lessons learnt have been developed, in which the NDPC seeks to share this knowledge generated and build capacities of not only the six MMDAs but all MMDAs in the six regions of the pilot IAFF programme.
The goal of the Tamale workshop was therefore to share expertise produced on internal revenue generation, difficulties, and possibilities during the IAFF programme implementation.
“Unlocking innovative financing for local development is also linked to key opportunities to attract investment from our diaspora community. And UNDP is actively supporting the establishment of a dedicated diaspora support platform. This platform will serve as a dynamic bridge connecting fellow compatriots living outside of their communities to their roots and offering them a meaningful avenue to actively participate in the development of their districts,” Dr. Lusigi explained further.
She added: “So we see that improved revenues from property taxes, government services and other revenue streams will also help to increase the investments in critical development projects. In this region, these include the provision of sufficient waste management facilities, providing access to clean drinking water in rural areas and also strengthening school and health infrastructure.”
Shani Alhassan Shaibu, Northern Regional Minister, admitted that funds from Central Government could not be enough to meet the ever growing needs of the people due to increasing demands of society as a result of fast growing population and other demographic factors.
“This has made it extremely difficult if not impossible for most Assemblies to fulfill their mandate of championing the development agenda of their people. It is therefore imperative that Local Assemblies turn to local sources of funding to augment the releases that come from Central Government”, Mr. Shaibu suggested.
The Minister said “I know that at the end of this training, we will begin to notice remarkable improvement in our Internally Generated Funds. It is my belief and desire that in a not so distant future, Assemblies will become self-reliant and the culture of over reliance on Central Government for funding will be a thing of the past.”
Jonathan Azaasu, Senior Technical Advisor to the Director General of NDPC, said internally generated Funds (IGF) of most MMDAs dropped significantly from 12.44% to 1.49% in 2020 due to the closing down of businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak.
“There was no movement of goods and people and markets were closed and so the Assemblies could not collect their taxes even though the bills were prepared. People’s businesses also collapsed and it made it impossible for them to pay their taxes.
“This workshop is the beginning of the process to build the capacities of the MMDAs to make sure they are resilient in the future should anything happen. So we’re building capacity for them to be able to improve on annual basis their IGF so they can provide services for the citizenry and improve on the living standards of the people”, Mr. Azaasu explained.
He urged the MMDAs to adopt the recommendations of the IAFF pilot programme in order to improve their revenue generation efforts so that they could bring the necessary development citizens were yearning for.
By SavannahNewsOnline.Com/Philip Liebs
