He said the IPEG aimed at enhancing economic development at the local level, therefore, Government would allocate $ 275 million for poverty alleviation programmes with each constituency entitled to one million dollars to undertake basic infrastructure projects.

Dr Alolor said this when addressing participants at the maiden Policy Summit, organised by the Ministry of Information, in Accra, on the theme: “Building Partnerships for Growth and Jobs.”

He noted that the IPEP was in line with the promises made by the New Patriotic Party in the run-up to the 2016 General Election.

He said the programme would focus on agriculture, agribusiness and slum upgrading as well as other government flagship programmes like ‘one district, one factory’, ‘one village, one dam’ and ‘one district, one warehouse’.

Other IPEP initiatives included the expansion of health infrastructure such as Community-based Health Planning Services compounds, to improve health delivery and small-water systems to improve provision of potable water to all parts of the country.

Dr Alolor said the private sector would be involved in the execution of the IPEP, therefore, the implementing authorities would liaise with them to ensure successful roll-out of the programmes.

He said in order to ensure smooth implementation of IPEP, Government would establish three development authorities namely, the Northern Development Authority, the Middle Belt Development Authority and the Coastal Development Authority to oversee the implementation of the programme.

He said the Northern Development would replace the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority with focus on the three northern regions made up of 67 constituencies including the Upper East, the Upper West and the Northern regions to bridge the poverty gap between the north and the south.

The Middle Belt Development Authority comprising 99 constituencies include the Ashanti, the Brong- Ahafo and the Eastern regions while the Coastal Development Authority would supervise the implementation of the programme in 109 constituencies in the Western, Central, Volta and Greater Accra regions.

Dr Alolor said the implementation of IPEP would not be done in isolation but would create synergy with other government agencies.He said it would be in line with the medium term development plans of the metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies.There would be stakeholder engagements at the district level in order to prioritise the needs of the people so that they would owned the programme, he pointed out.

He said although constituency co-ordinators would be appointed to supervise the programme, it behoved on Ghanaians to get involved in the monitoring and evaluating of these projects in order to benefit the ordinary citizens.

Dr Alolor cited the ‘Planting for Food and Jobs’ initiative, which Government would involve private entities to increase food security, while surplus produce would be exported to increase the country’s foreign exchange earnings.

The two-day summit provided a platform for stakeholders in the public and private sectors to dialogue on key government policies and programmes and solicit feedback from them to ensure effective implementation.

The event brought together captains of industries, government officials, diplomatic corps and Members of Parliament, as well as civil society organisations and the media.