SUCCOUR came to the indigenes of Ohum-Orba community in Udenu Local Government of Enugu State yesterday following the State government move to complete work on abandoned Civic/Skill Acquisition Centre in the area, estimated at N9million.
Already, the Centre for Community and Social Development (CSDP) has doled out N1.8million for the World Bank assisted project to the community as first installment to kick-start the project which had been delayed since 2014.
Speaking during the handing over of the cheque ceremony, the general manager of CSDP, Dr Maximus Asogwa, lauded Enugu State governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for reforming the agency by paying the government counterparts fund of N50,000,000 to attract World Bank community development to the state.
“We are here to release the first installment, being 30% of the 6.7 million earmarked for you civic centre. We will release the second and third installment depending on when you complete this first phase.”
He also urged the community to show seriousness and complete the Civic centre in good time so as to commence work on the Skill Acquisition Centre projected to gulp about 2.8 million Naira.
“Our coming here is just to fulfill one of the things expected of the agency by the development partners and we assure you that once this Civic Center is completed, we will also commence work on your second demand which is a skill acquisition centre.”
Asogwa urged the community to be transparent and accountable in doing the project though the agency will supervise every stage of the project to avoid complications.
He promised that the agency is prepared to do more if the community would use the money according to plan and within the stipulated time. He further to use engineers from the agency in the project to ensure that the money budgeted will be enough to complete the project.
In an interview, the State Focal Person for World Bank and development partner Projects, Honourable Uche Nnaji who thanked the Governor of Enugu State for assisting the community urged them to ensure proper disbursement of funds to attract more projects for the community.
“World Bank project is dependent on disbursement. If that World Bank commits money to a project, they expect the community to disburse the money as directed to attract more projects.”
“The World Bank has what is called appraisal on a yearly basis to know how much paid to a state and how much was disbursed. This is very important to the state and the Ohum Orba community. I thank God that we have come to a point where we can kickstart this project despite the challenges it faced in the past,” he said.
He further urged the governor to attract more World Bank projects to the state noting that there are many World Bank assisted projects to be accessed.
“Enugu State is nowhere compared to other states in the states like Kaduna and Cross River States that have 50%of their development projects sponsored by the World Bank,” he concluded.
Also speaking, the tradition ruler of the community, Igwe Evarestus Onah, expressed his excitement over the commencement of the project which according to him will help improve the lives of his people.
The royal father thanked the World Bank and the Enugu State Government for the project promising to ensure that the money will be judiciously disbursed according to the stipulated plan.
“I thank the governor who helped us to meet the the requirement needed to make the requirement needed to make us benefit from the World Bank. I also thank the governors for revisiting our request,” he added.
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