Tamale — A total of 40 District Finance Officers and District Coordinating Directors last Monday undergone capacity building on the Integrated Assembly Financing Frame (IAFF) for the Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), to help them improve on the Internal Generated Fund of the assemblies (IGF).
The aim of the workshop was also to share expertise on the IGF and possibilities during IAFF implementation, and to build capacities of the MMDAs in the northern sector.
It was jointly organised by the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and the Ministry of Finance.
A rapid assessment after the COVID-19 outbreak showed that all the district assemblies in the country had been greatly impacted with low internal revenue generation, due to the lockdown of businesses and social activities, following which the IAFFs was pilot tested in six districts across the country.
The implementation of the IAFF was expected to, among others, identify new and innovative financing solutions that reflects district level comprehensive financing with their needed governance structures.
Following the implementation of the IAFF in the six pilot districts from 2021 to 2022, the Commission had conducted an assessment of performance on internal revenue generation challenges and opportunities.
Addressing the participants, the Resident Representative of the UNDP in Ghana, Dr Angela Lusigi said there was a wide gap between available financial resources and spending needs, particularly across the districts in northern region.
She stated in 2022, MMDAs in the northern region had achieved an average of 46 per cent of their budgeted revenue which resulted in a lower gap of 54 per cent.
"The gap is likely to increase from a rising demand for services, infrastructure and maintenance due to rapid urbanisation and the impacts of frequent natural disasters caused by climate change," she said.
Dr Lusigi explained that improving revenues from property taxes, government services and other revenue streams would also help to increase investment in critical development projects, such as the provision of sufficient waste management facilities, providing access to clean drinking water in rural areas, and strengthening school and health infrastructure in the districts.
She stated in 2021, UNDP partnered the Ministry of Finance and the NDPC as part of the COVID-19 recovery to support the MMDAs to develop the IAFF.
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The Senior Technical Advisor of the NDPC, Mr Jonathan Azaasu said the MMDAs were doing great in the growth of their IGF before the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic start in 2020.
Mr Azaasu said the rate of growth drastically reduced to 1.49 from 12.44 per cent and 71 out of the 261 MMDAS were able to either maintain or improve on their IGF.
"During the pandemic period, many assemblies IGF in the country fell significantly and consequently could not provide their services to the people.
The assemblies could not even pay sitting allowances for assembly members and in some instances to maintain their stationery materials for administrative purposes was difficult," he added.
He urged the participants to imbibe the knowledge so as to effectively improve on their IGF in their various districts in the region.
