Information Minister Launches 2017 Series of Town Hall Meetings

The Minister for Information, Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, has charged Regional and District Information Officers (RIOs & DIOs) to live up to their responsibilities as government spokespersons in their various regions and districts.

Mr Abdul-Hamid made it clear that government would depend on the Information Officers for feedback on the attitude of the citizenry towards government interventions.

"Development of the sectors depends on the RIOs and DIOs and you must live up to your responsibilities", he charged.

He was speaking at the launch of the 2017 series of Town Hall meetings at Koforidua in the Eastern Region on Sunday.

The Town Hall meeting, which was organized by the Ministry of Information, in collaboration with the Ministries of Trade and Industry, Education, and Food and Agriculture, brought together five RIOs and some DIOs from the southern Sector comprising Greater Accra, Central, Western, Eastern and Volta regions.

The Information officers were briefed on government flagship programmes to be rolled by the Ministries of Agriculture, Trade and Industry and Education.

Resource persons from the three collaborating Ministries took the Information officers through government initiatives and interventions such as the "Planting for Food and Jobs, One-District One-Factory, Infrastructure for Poverty Eradication Program (IPEP) and the Free Senior High School (FSHS).

The RIOs and DIOs are expected to go back to their respective regions and districts to interact and educate the people on these interventions by government in town hall meetings to be organized by the RIOs and DIOs under the auspices of the Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) and in collaboration with Heads of Departments in the districts.

Mr. Abdul-Hamid reiterated his commitment to retooling the Information Services Department and pledged to also ensure that MMDCEs supported officers to execute their jobs and cautioned the Information officers against using state resources to engage in partisan politics.

A similar town hall meeting will be organised for Information Officers in the remaining five regions in the northern sector

Source: MoI (Munira Karim)

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