The Asiwaju of Ijesaland and Chairman of the Ijesa Community Development Assembly (ICDA), Chief Olayinka Fasuyi, has called on Ijesa indigenes to support the Ijesa Development Fund (IDF) to drive growth and development in the region.
Speaking recently, Fasuyi highlighted the fund’s role in mobilising community resources for socioeconomic projects, stressing that sustainable development requires active participation from all stakeholders.
He declared that the sustainable development of any community requires meaningful and functional stakeholder participation, hence the introduction of the IDF in Ijesaland.
According to him, IDF is an all-encompassing, all-inclusive, participatory, demand-driven, and sustainable development model developed by the ICDA.
He explained that it is a development instrument anchored in mobilising community funds through community representatives and employing the funds generated to carry out socioeconomic development projects identified within the communities.
The aim, he stated, is to continually improve the standard of living in the Ijesa community and thereby complement the developmental efforts of the local government areas, state government, and federal government in Ijesaland.
While explaining further, he said, “IDF is a development vehicle designed in such a way that enables and encourages every socioeconomic segment of the Ijesa community to contribute financially, from the highest donor class of N1M (One Million Naira) per annum to the lowest donor class of N1,000 (One Thousand Naira) per annum, with donors taken from age 21 years old and above.
“This financial participation embraces all Ijesas at home and in the diaspora; all non-Ijesas living in Ijesaland; commercial and non-commercial organisations operating in Ijesaland; societies, clubs; in-laws, relatives, and friends of Ijesaland.”
He noted that to promote the decentralisation of development across all parts of Ijesaland, the payment contribution system has been designed along the six LGAs in Ijesaland, where donors are encouraged to contribute to the local government of their choice.
Additionally, the scheme includes a payment recognition system that allows individuals and organisations to contribute to more than one LGA, fostering a stronger bond and unity in Ijesaland.
According to him, this pattern is expected to generate healthy competition among the six local governments in Ijesaland, consequently driving sustainable development across the various communities.
“The IDF governance structure is rooted in the grassroots through the wards, where you have Wards’ Grassroots Managers (WGMs) who will be directly managing the development activities with the support of the Central Executive of Wards’ Grassroots Managers.
“The implementation structure above shall be monitored, evaluated, and held accountable in each LGA by the LGA Community Development Committee. The WGMs’ projects shall be appraised and approved by both the LGA/ICDA Coordinating Committee and the Board of ICDA.
“The donor payment system has been agreed upon by the ICDA with participating banks, where a customised payment platform has been simplified and made user-friendly, especially for our rural area users.”
Finally, he stated that the contribution payment template has been designed to seamlessly allow ICDA/IDF to capture all the basic and vital information about donors, which is required to populate the register of Ijesa developers.
According to him, it is in this register of Ijesa developers that anyone around the world can find the names of individuals, organisations, and friends of Ijesaland who contribute annually and sustainably to the development of the six LGAs in Ijesaland.
He noted that the register of Ijesa developers would be available in two formats: online and hard copy.
“The online version shall be available on the ICDA-IDF website, which can be accessed 24/7 for payment status, while the hard copy shall be produced on an LGA-by-LGA basis in December of every year and sold at cost price to interested community members for their records.”
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