TAMALE CATTLE MARKET TO BE OPERATIONAL BY OCTOBER

TAMALE CATTLE MARKET TO BE OPERATIONAL BY OCTOBER
From: Joseph Ziem, Tamale
The operationalisation of the Cattle Market at Guunayilli, a suburb of Tamale, the Northern Regional Capital has been given a big boost following a three day visit to Tamale by a delegation from Fada N’gourma, a town in Eastern Burkina Faso noted for its large scale cattle production.
The cattle market is one of the many initiatives and vision of the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly to promote investment and enhance trade and other economic activities in Tamale as part of measures to ensure prosperity for the people of the Metropolis and also ensure increased revenue for the Assembly to enable her implement her development programmes.
Fada N’gourma is reported to have the largest cattle market in West Africa and therefore has a comparative advantage over Tamale. But Tamale’s strategic location coupled with her potentially huge market and position too, as the gateway to the Sahelian Regions and the Southern part of Ghana on the other hand also places her ahead of the rest, a situation the people of the two Cities want to collaborate and pursue to its respective benefits.
Kockty Moumouni, District Chief Executive for Fada N’gourma accompanied by other officials from the Provincial Council on arrival in Tamale visited the cattle market at Guunayili to see and appreciate the efforts and readiness of Tamale for the full operationalisation of the market by October this year.
The Fada N’gourma Mayor and his team observed with satisfaction the speed with which structures at the market were put up to receive the first batch of cattle from their partners in Fada as soon as discussions and other arrangements were completed.
Mr. Moumouni praised the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly for practicalising the establishment of the cattle market which was one of the key provisions in a 2006 Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two cities. Tamale and Fada N’gourma entered into a Sister-City relationship in 2003 with the signing of the first Memorandum of Understanding and the second in 2006.
The Fada N’gourma Mayor also announced the preparedness of the Fada N’gourma Muinicipal Council to accept and pay the salaries of an English teacher from Tamale for a period of one year with a possibility of renewal and urged the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly to immediately take steps to make this offer a reality and practicable as soon as possible.
The Mayor also announced the provision of a parcel of land in Fada for the people of Tamale to put up a house as well as stores for the use of traders from Tamale each time they are in Fada for business.
The Fada N’gourma Mayor expressed delight at progress made so far in the implementation of the various protocols embodied in the MoU signed between the two cities some of which he said included the establishment of a linkage between Butchers and Cattle Dealers Associations of Tamale and Fada, cultural and street cleansing exchange programmes among others.
Alhaji Abdulai Haruna Friday, Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive for his part noted that all the expectations and aspirations of the people of the two cities would have come to naught if officials of the two cities did not put in the required effort to ensure the actualization of all the MoUs signed between them and called on his visiting counterpart to join hands with him so that together they could achieve the aims and objectives of the relationship for the benefit of their people.