Tema, Ms Anna Naa Adukwei Addo, the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Tema West, has called on residents to pay their property rates to raise enough money to finance projects and recurrent expenditure.
Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Tema, she said that Ghanaians needed to be responsible to pay their property rate, building permit and business operating permit, to be able to help the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies mobilise funds to engage in a developmental project.
Ms Addo, who was a former Banker at the Prudential Bank, said revenue generated from the property rate and building permits was collected annually as part of the Internally Generated Fund (IGF) for the development of social amenities, local services and infrastructure at the local level.
Ms Addo said the Tema West Municipal could not continue to depend on the District Assembly Common Fund for its activities, adding “our hope of becoming one of the best municipalities is largely dependent on how much internal revenue we can generate.”
The MCE explained that the Tema West Municipal had undertaken several initiatives to improve education and security to ensure the overall development of the municipality since she took office in October 2021.
She highlighted that under her administration, the Assembly had completed two-storey classroom blocks at Adjei Kojo TWMA Basic School and Star Basic School in community five School respectively, adding that the Kanewu Police Station had been completed and handed over to the Municipal Police Commander.
“I want to mobilise revenue which can be used for the betterment of health, education, and sanitation for Tema West,” she said.
Ms Addo expressed concerns of defaulters, who are unaware of the legal requirements to pay their property rate, pointing out that as a challenge the Assembly is trying to overcome.
She said the Assembly had created a digitised process to keep records of every revenue accumulated.
She entreated the media to help educate the citizenry on the importance of paying property tax.
Source: Ghana News Agency
