Following this, the state would now access over one billion Naira from the World Bank under its joint venture business with the global body run by the state’s agency for Community and Social Development Project (CSDP).
The whopping sum when accessed with the payment of the state’s counterpart fund as ordered by the governor, would enable the state’s CSDP to complete 49 on-going projects in already approved community development plans and the funding of new projects in about 100 communities in the state within the next two years.
The governor’s approval of the payment of the sum followed a request to that effect by the state commissioner for Rural Development, Ozo Gab Onuzulike, after the state Executive Council had last May confirmed the state’s readiness to ensure the payment to attract the World Bank’s additional financing of the projects under the CSDP.
An elated general manager of the state’s CSDP, Dr. Maximus Asogwa, stated Wednesday that the governor’s approval of the release of the counterpart fund was another huge gesture which would give his agency renewed vigour in carrying out projects under the joint venture with the global body.
CSDP in the state had in the past five years completed over 200 projects in about 120 communities across the state in the areas of health, education, rural electrification, water, rural feeder roads, bridges and culverts as well as civic centres and market stalls.