TARKWA-NSUAEM ASSEMBLY IMPROVES REVENUE GENERATION (PAGE 43, JULY 17, 2010)

WITH the inception of the District Assemblies Common Fund (DACF), many metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies are now virtually depending on the fund for the execution of numerous development projects.
The institution of the common fund has made some assemblies relax in their internal income generation programmes or strategies.
The common fund was instituted to supplement the funding of development projects being implemented by the assemblies. They must, therefore, not be seen as the main source of funding of the development activities in the metropolis, municipalities and the districts.
This has created a situation where the delay in the release of the common fund makes the implementation of these projects very difficult.
Nowadays, most of the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies are not able to generate even half of their estimated annual revenue internally, as a result of their reliance on the common fund.
It is against this background that the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Assembly in the Western Region has adopted measures to improve its internally generated revenue.
The assembly has undertaken major rehabilitation of the Tarkwa central market at a cost of GH¢260,000 to improve on the facilities in the market and to generate more revenue from the market.
The assembly has also institutionalised Mondays and Fridays as market days to make the market vibrant by encouraging all traders from surrounding satellite markets to bring their commodities and foodstuffs to the market to sell.
All traders operating from the lorry parks and streets have also been relocated to the Tarkwa central market through a decongestive exercise.
Speaking on the institutionalisation of the market days at the market, the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mrs Christina Kobbinah, said the market used to be very vibrant in the 1960s and 1970s.
She said unfortunately, over the years, not only did business in the market fall, but also the structures fell into a state of disrepair.
“It was no more attractive to the market women so many of them therefore chose to ply their trade at the lorry parks,” he explained.
Mrs Kobbinah said it was expected that the traders would participate in market days and make prices of their commodities relatively cheaper to attract more customers.
She stated that a market flourished when traders exhibited high sense of good customer relationship, good interpersonal communication and negotiation skills.
The MCE, therefore, appealed to the market women to adopt those common marketing principles so as to attract other traders to transact business in the market.
The Akyeamehene of Apinto Divisional Area, Nana Kobina Obbo, stated that the declaration of Mondays and Fridays as market days would boost business and trade and also improve the income of families, as well as revenue for the municipal assembly.
He appealed for peace to prevail in the market and urged the market queens to desist from imposing unnecessary high tolls on goods that would be brought from the rural areas to the market.
That practice, Nana Obbo said, would scare the rural people from patronising the market days, making business at the market to suffer.