Ghana is finalising an agreement with Germany to export nurses, Mr Joe Danquah, the Chief Executive Officer of the Middle Belt Development Authority (MBDA), has said.
He said the Authority was holding extensive discussions with the German health institutions.
Mr Danquah said the agreement would provide opportunities for German health professionals to offer in-service training for the qualified, selected Ghanaian nurses to meet certain requirements.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Asekye, a farming community in the Nkoranza South Municipality of the Bono East Region, he said the MBDA had prioritised the building of the nation’s human resource development.
Mr Danquah had earlier handed over a 30-shed maize market and a newly built 10-seater water closet toilet facility constructed at the cost of GHC304,000 to the chiefs and people of the area. He explained the Authority was constructing Astro-turf pitches to promote sports development, saying very soon it would open cultural and art villages that would offer employable skill training to the youth.
“We are also set to establish agriculture business centres to train the youth in agriculture-business as well as organise a business investment summit to highlight the rich cultural heritage and economic potentials in our operational areas to attract investment for job creation,” Mr Danquah said.
He said the Authority had designed several projects and introduced social intervention programmes aimed at job creation and poverty reduction, saying at least about 1,000 young people in the MBDA’s operational area would benefit from direct or indirect jobs from the intervention.
Mr Danquah said so far, the MBDA had constructed and handed over 12 public toilets to help end open defecation in deprived communities and provided a community-based Health Planning Services (CPHS) Compound for the Mesidan community.
All these projects, including six separate number three-unit classroom blocks spread across the region, were constructed at the cost of about GHC3 million, he added.
Mr Danquah, therefore, called on the Municipal/District Assemblies to help maintain the facilities and asked the beneficiary communities to also take good care of the project as well.
Mr Peter Osei Fosu, the Nkoranza North Municipal Chief Executive, expressed appreciation to the MBDA for the projects and promised to ensure that the communities would take good care of and maintain them.
He called on maize farmers and the market women in the area to use the facility and avoid selling their produce along roadsides.
Nana Poku Dankonto, the Chief of Asekye, thanked the MBDA for the facilities, saying the farmers produced maize in commercial quantities and appealed to the government to build storage facilities to tackle post-harvest losses.
