Nine hundred and fifty thousand people in nine districts in the Northern Region are to benefit from the Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) programme under the US President’s Malaria Initiative by the close of this year.

The initiative is aimed at preventing and controlling malaria through the IRS, distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets, improved quality in case management and prophylactic treatment of pregnant women.

It is being implemented by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in collaboration with the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

The beneficiary districts are Savelugu-Nanton, Karaga, Gushiegu, Saboba, Chereponi, West and East Mamprusi, Bunkprugu-Yunyoo and Tolon-Kumbungu.

The initiative started in 2008 with only five districts but has been expanded to nine districts, with the US government spending $6 million a year to help sustain it.

During his visit to Nanton, the US Ambassador to Ghana, Mr Donald Teitelbaum, pointed out that the districts were selected based on the high prevalence rate of malaria in those areas.

According to him, the GHS and USAID had jointly trained 1,669 health workers in the region and distributed 562,737 treated bed nets to the beneficiaries.

Mr Teitelbaum commended the chief of Nanton for exhibiting quality leadership that encouraged USAID to extend the programme to the area and equally thanked the people for the warm reception accorded him and his entourage.

The Nanton-Naa, Sulemana Alhassan, for his part, expressed gratitude to the US government and the ambassador for expanding the initiative to cover his area.

He noted that his community was happy with the exercise and expressed the hope that more interventions from the US would be extended to the area.

In Tamale, the US Ambassador interacted with a number of companies and stakeholders involved in the Agricultural Development and Value Chain Enhancement (ADVANCE) programme of USAID.

Its main objective is to increase the competitiveness of rice, maize and soya value chains in northern Ghana through better use of improved technologies, management and access to services on the input, production and output sides.

The companies are the Gundaa Produce Company, the Wumpini Agro Chemicals, Candel Limited, Simple Prince Limited, Antika Company Limited, Khama Farms Enterprise and Bogu Seeds and Fruits Farmers Association.

He also shared a few ideas with the workers of the Tamale Implements Factory, officials of the Stanbic Bank and the Bonzali Rural Bank. All the companies mounted an exhibition which the ambassador inspected as part of the interaction.

The ADVANCE programme forms part of the Feed the Future Initiative of the US government.

The US has committed $3.5 billion to support the programme to help address global hunger and food security issues. In Ghana, it is expected that 860,000 vulnerable Ghanaian women, children and family members will escape hunger and poverty over the next five years.

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