Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) have been encouraged to partner with businesses, investors and community organisations at the local level to promote local products in at least one sector to complement the government's efforts at addressing unemployment.
This will also help the MMDAs to carry out one of their key mandated of promoting economic development at the local level. The Minister of Local Government, Decentralisation and Rural Development, Dan Botwe, who gave the advice, said to achieve this mandate, MMDAs needed to ensure effective collaboration with key stakeholders at the local level to champion development and prosperity for all without necessarily relying on the central government in making local economies resilient.
"Promoting economic growth and job creation is not only the responsibility of the central government but also the 261 local governments in the country.
"The ministry wishe to encourage the MMDAs to work together with local enterpreneurs, businesses, investors and community organisations to form district parnerships to promote local products either in agriculture, industry, arts and craft, tourism and so on,"he said.
Mr. Botwe was speaking at a local econimic development investment fair, organised by the Institute of Local Government Studies (ILGS) in Accra on Wednesday September 20 under the auspices of the sector ministry.
The fair was a follow-up to a nationwide training by the Centre for Local Economic Development at ILGS for local government officers on a programme dubbed "Next Generation Local Economic Developemnt (LED)" which provided an opportunity for sales and exhibition.
The fair, held on the theme, "Building vibrant local econmies through local LED products", saw 18 MMDAs selected across the country, exhibiting and selling their local products such as pineaple juice, organic fertiliser, vegetables and poultry feed, among others. The participants pitched their products to development, social and commercial investors, banks, the private sector and non-governmental organisations.
The Director of ILGS, Professor Nicholas Awortwi, explained that the next-generation LED was a strategy to help local governments support economic activities at the local level. "The approach is based on the priciples that it is the business of local governments to do business, to create jobs and improve the income levels of the people,"he said.