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Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Maafo has asked Ghanaians not to confuse the establishment the three new regions and three development authorities.

Speaking at the orientation programme organized for a 10 member committee for the president’s special initiatives, the Senior Minister said he has noted that people were confusing the creation of the new regions with the development authorities.

He said, the two are very different. In the same manifesto, we promised to create three new political regions and we did not just say that.

We mentioned the regions involved. We said Brong Ahafo will be divided into two, most probably, Northern region is likely to be divided into two or three, and Volta Region will be divided into three to form political regions. It is very different from these development authorities.’’

Mr. Maafo said the development authorities are specifically created as vehicle for development and a minister has been appointed to be responsible for these regions.

The number of priorities he stated has also been identified for development programmes. Government has also launched the Middle Belt Development Authority which will work to identify economic opportunities, develop infrastructure and grow small scale business in the Ashanti, Brong Ahafo and Eastern regions.

The NPP in 2016 promised that its Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme (IPEP) will be administered by three (3) development authorities to be established government.

These development authorities, he said, are the Northern Development Authority, for the 3 northern regions; the Middle-Belt Development Authority, for the Brong Ahafo, Ashanti, and Eastern Regions; and the Coastal Development Authority for the 4 coastal regions.

All these 3 authorities will be reporting to the Office of the President, and they will be the vehicles for the implementation of the Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Programme. The Nana Akufo-Addo government also promised to create at least three new regions out of some existing ones.

The creation of the regions will be the major agenda for the newly created Ministry for Regional Reorganisation and Development. During the campaign, the President Nana Addo promised to split the Western Region to have a Western North region to promote development in the Northern part of the region which has been greatly underserved.

“the four regions that we have chosen are those that we want to reshape and create new regions out of them. We’re talking about the Western North region which I committed myself to and the manifesto also committed itself to, the creation of the Ahafo region out of the Brong-Ahafo, another express commitment on my part and backed by the manifesto, the northern region.”

“Even on the thank you tour, that I took there a couple of weeks ago, there was an express demand that there should be a region created out of the eastern corridor by the Chiefs and people there, and then the Volta region where there has been a long-standing demand for the creation of the Oti region,” Akufo-Addo explained.