About fifteen agrarian local government areas of Anambra state are to benefit from the federal government rural road construction programme, under Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP).
The Commissioner for Works, Engineer Marcel Ifejiofor disclosed this yesterday, during a one day workshop on scoping and impact assessment in preparation for the commencement of the programme in Anambra state.
The event was attended by President General and stakeholders from benefitting communities namely, Ayamelum, Anambra East, and West Oyi, Dudnukofia, Awka North and South, Orumba North and South, Aguata, Ihiala, Ogbaru, Idemili North and South and Anaocha.
Addressing the participants, the commissioner, represented by the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Works Barrister Emeka Ohuoha who is the chairman monitoring committee of the project said that the workshop is a requirement of the law which provides that the scoping workshop must be conducted for the benefiting communities to discuss the impact of the project both positively and negatively.
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While noting that the construction of rural roads is the primary responsibility of RAAMP, Engineer Ifejiofor said that the development will further boost the socio-economic well being of the benefitting communities and the state at large.
He said the state government has paid the counterpart fund of eight per cent of the total fund which is fifty million dollars.
In their separate speeches, the Commissioner for Environment Mr Obi Nwankwo represented by Mrs Ngozi Anyaegbu, the Commissioner for Agriculture Mr Nnamdi Onukwuba represented by Mrs Chinwe Agu and the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on RAAMP, Dr Ngozi Ezike maintained that processing adds value to products, urging communities to always replace trees cut down during the road construction period to avoid effect of climate change.
Also speaking, the Consultant to the project Dr Damilola Adesina said that RAAMP and African Development Bank decided to give access to rural farmers to enable them to evacuate their produce and have value for their stress and to improve the state and country’s economy.
The Anambra state chairman RAAMP, Engineer, Joe Onyejekwe, on his part, explained that the project started since twelve years ago, and was introduced in Anambra in 2011, but did not scale through, until 2016 when Governor Obiano facilitated the move which has kicked off in earnest.
He added that Anambra state is among the six states benefitting from the programme which will last for five years.
In a presentation, the Environmental and Social Safeguard Officer of the project Engineer Valentine Oderaa, explained the various phases of the project including the pre-construction, construction and operation phases, with three components, all geared towards improving rural access and agro logistics in the state.
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