By: Maame Efua Kwaduah
NDC flagbearer, John Dramani Mahama, has announced that a future NDC administration will establish a College of Education in Yizesi, specializing in training agriculture teachers to supply agric teachers for schools across the country.
During a community engagement in Yizesi in the North East Region, Mr. Mahama highlighted the lack of tertiary institutions in the area, noting that residents currently have to travel to Wa, Bolgatanga, Tamale, or Bimbila for tertiary education.
He also pledged to designate Yizesi as a special agro-processing zone.
This initiative he said will include a farmers’ center equipped with ploughs, harrows, fertilizers, improved seeds, and other necessary tools.
According to him, farmers will register at this center, receive inputs, and pay back the cost from their sales, keeping the remaining profit.
Mr. Mahama further promised to introduce rice milling machines to the zone, allowing farmers to process and package their rice for sale.
He emphasized the importance of enhancing farmers’ incomes and creating jobs for the youth, pointing out that while the unemployment rate was just above 8% during his time as president, it has now risen to nearly 15%.
Mr. Mahama acknowledged that Yizesi, previously cut off, holds significant economic potential reason past governments have focused on improving connectivity through the construction of bridges to integrate the region with other towns, given its substantial agricultural capacity.
He mentioned that the late President Rawlings initiated the efforts to make the area free from onco (onchocerciasis) and began projects to improve accessibility, including opening up the route from Walewale through Misho Bridge, and constructing the Doboya and Tatale bridges as part of the broader effort to develop the region.
“In Rawlings time we started the onco spraying to make onco free zone and then in his time we started the project to open up from Walewale from the Misho bridge and then we also did the bridge at Daboya over the Tatale bridge. That is all an effort to open up the area because is a very big agricultural zone,”he said