The Kogi state government has said it would benefit from a $500 million World Bank facility meant for rural development in parts of the country.
The state commissioner of rural development, Paul Enema, who disclosed this during a ministerial press briefing in Lokoja, the state capital, said that the state government had already paid its counterparts contribution towards the execution of the rural projects.
He explained that government would use the facility for the construction of 500 kilometres of rural roads across the 21 local government areas of the state.
The commissioner said that the execution of the road projects billed to commence early next year is targeted at boosting road networks across the state for the easy transportation of goods and services within and outside the state.
According to him, the state government would ensure justice and fair play in the provision of rural roads, rural electrification and rural potable water supply to all communities across the state.
He said, “As government who believe in the continuation of projects execution and implementation, the ministry concentrated in embarking on rehabilitation, resuscitation and reticulation of all the existing water schemes in the period under review.”
The commissioner also said that his ministry had made significant impacts in boosting rural electrification in the state through the provision of transformers and power generating sets to rural communities in the three senatorial districts of the state.
The benefiting communities, according to him, include Ogori in Ogori/Magongo local government area, Agasa in Okene local government area among others.
The director-general, Bureau of Information Services and Grassroots Sensitisation, Abdulmalik Abulkareem, said the ministerial briefing was packaged to bridge the communication gap between the people and the government.
He said the forum would provide the opportunity for dissemination of government’s policies and programmes with a view to getting clearer feedbacks from citizens.
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