Kuoro Barecheh Nlowie Baninye II, an aspirants for the Member of Council of State elections in the Upper West Region has promised to lobby for the payment of monthly salaries and cars to Assembly members to facilitate their work.

He said considering the enormous responsibilities and financial burdens on Assembly Members, it was important that their welfare was prioritised.

Kuoro Baninye who said this in an interview with the GNA in Wa, promised that if elected, he would deliberately solicit the approval of the President, to address the issue of the monthly salary of the assembly members.

"Equally compelling is that, an appeal would be made to the President to urgently consider giving cars to our revered assembly members instead of motorbikes. This will not only make Assembly Members mobile, but, uplift their social status to commensurate their unflinching and enormous contributions to national development", he said.

According to him, an amendment of the current local government Act, 2016 (ACT 936) on matters relating to the payment of allowances to Assembly Members was also necessary to look at to allow their allowances and exgratia to be paid from the consolidated funds either than internally generated funds.

"Also, since Assembly Members are development crusaders and ambassadors of their respective Electoral Areas, an amendment of the existing legal regimes would be advocated to allow 3% of the District Assembly Common Fund to be allocated to them for accelerated development of their areas", the Council of State aspirant said.

The traditional ruler said he would also lobby for the general infrastructural improvement of the Region especially the issue of the poor road network.

He would equally use his position to rally his colleague chiefs in the region in peace building for accelerated development.

"I will support, as well as, rally the good people of Upper West Region to support development-oriented government policies and flagship programmes such as; Planting for Export and Rural Development (PERD), Rearing for Food and Jobs (RFJ), and Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) which are intended to alleviate poverty in the region", Kuoro Baninye said.

The chief said he would also take urgent steps to market the invaluable natural resource potentials of the region to both local and international investors, adding that, this would significantly increase the Internally Generated Funds (IGF) of the various MDAs in the region, therefore, reducing the over reliance on funds from central government.

Kuoro Baninye also pledged to take proactive steps, with the support of key stakeholders in the region, to identify, nurture and develop the human resource base of the Upper West Region through local and international undergraduate as well as postgraduate scholarship schemes.

Kuoro Baninye, therefore, appealed to the Assembly members to vote for him to help advance the development of the region as well as their welfare.

Meanwhile, seven people in the Upper West Region have filed their nominations with the Electoral Commission to contest the position come February 12, 2021.