Nana Antwi Boasiako VI, Ankobeahen of Abeadze-Dominase Traditional Area in the Mfantseman Municipality, said such Councils were better placed to collect revenue and act as tools for strengthening social accountability between the state and its citizens to facilitate development.

He gave the advice at a town hall meeting held by the Anomabo Parish Justice for Peace Committee (PJPC) in collaboration with the Mfantseman Municipal Assembly at Abeadze-Dominase on Wednesday.

 "The resources needed for development in the country are in the communities, hence if the Zonal Councils are empowered, they would be able to ensure that the necessary development takes place in the communities."

The relevance of the councils could not be underestimated, as the assemblies could not function without them, Nana Antwi Boasiako said, adding, "over the years, more concentration had been on the municipal assemblies that are already overburdened in their development drive."

They must continually build the capacity of Zonal Councils to re-commit them to the vision to engage taxpayers to mobilise more money through modernized IT systems for the desired results.

 In addition to that, there must be regular workshops to train the council members and the citizenry on their mandate as well as empower them to actively work and contribute their quota to the development of their communities.

 "To ensure proper decentralisation and development, these Zonal Councils can be empowered to collect property rate and use the revenue for development of their communities, instead of always going to the assemblies for money, only to be turned away," the Ankobeahen added.

 He further called on assemblies to prioritize data collection as an effective and efficient revenue generation, mobilization and monitoring regarding the properties and businesses among others.

That, he indicated was also paramount in assisting assemblies to do proper forecasting, billing, collection and maximising the revenues to support economic, social and infrastructural development.

On revenue generation, he stated that the ability for assemblies to maintain new and existing infrastructure will become increasingly difficult if they were unable to generate adequate funds from their own sources.

He reminded assemblies of government's vision to transform Ghana's economy and that it was imperative for them to up their revenue generation efforts to keep up with the vibrant mission of industrialising the country and develop Ghana beyond aid.

During the open forum, the participants re-echoed the essence of resourcing the Councils to bring development to the doorstep of the people, to make life easier for them.

Assemblies must address challenges facing the Zonal Councils to enable them function effectively as key component of the development process.