Chief Executive Officer of the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) Dr. Charles Abugri has called on all political parties to eschew politicising SADA-related issues because that move, he says, is hampering the implementation of developmental projects in the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone.
He was speaking at the National Forum on the Transformation of the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone aimed at engaging presidential candidates of various political parties contesting in the 2016 polls.
The Coalition of SADA ZONE CSOs organised the forum on Tuesday, October 25 in Bolgatanga in the Upper East for the political parties.
It is to outline their vision and development agenda on transforming the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone into a place of opportunities for all, free from poverty and inequality.
Acknowledging the past woes of SADA and some scandals that plagued the dissolved administration, Dr. Charles Abugri indicated SADA can make changes, be reformed and can be better.
He noted that despite the law guarding SADA as enshrined under the NDC government, the plan to develop the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone was already in gear.
What it needs is the political will to materialise, he stressed.
Dr Abugri, however, charged political parties to be technocratic to uphold the transformational agenda of the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone since it holds the perpetual economic liberation of the country and must not be seen as a political game.
In his presentation of a master plan document aimed at industrialising the SADA zone, he stated his administration has been working for the past two years on all research works that pertains to the soils and viable seeds, roads, dams, solar energy plants and industries that will stimulate growth and revenue generation in the area.
He was of the view that the SADA zone would only be prioritised when the infrastructural projects and development agenda of the Zone is lifted into the national infrastructure plan.
He mentioned the Pwalugu area, for instance, which has over 120,000 hectares of land that could augment agribusiness in the country is lying undeveloped with over 40 million cubit metres of water running off every year due to the lack of dams and irrigation plants to optimise the resource.
According to Dr. Abugri, the research has found 25 different crops that would survive and flourish in the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone and governments must not take for granted the enormous untapped resource potential of the SADA Zone.
At the 2016 National Forum on the Transformation of the Northern Savannah Ecological Zone, he stressed the agribusiness development zones in the area will not only feed Ghana but several African countries and this is the time to act.
Emphatically, he stated that SADA must be left out of partisan politics though the developmental projects and agenda of the SADA Zone can only be implemented by a political party in government, adding that his administration will not respond or contribute to partisan politics.
Dr. Charles Abugre was serving as the African Regional Director of the UN Millennium with over 20 years of experience in Economic and International Development before he was appointed by President John Mahama as the new CEO of SADA after the old administration led by Gilbert Seidu Iddi was dissolved.
By Listowell Acquaye|TV3, Bolgatanga|3news.com|Ghana
