The Abia State Government has announced a plan to start community development programmes to ensure even spread of socio-economic growth in rural areas.
The Commissioner for Information and Culture, Mr Okey Kanu, who said this on Monday after the State Executive Council meeting in Umuahia, also noted that the programmes, known as “Community Choose Your Project”, would be carried out through the Abia State Community Social Development Development Agency.
“The government’s efforts to rebuild Abia will not just be focused on Aba and Umuahia.
“Government is being strategic in its bid to rebuild the state and has decided to move to the hinterlands,” he said.
According to him, government officials will tour various rural communities to interact with the people and get to know the kind of infrastructure they need.
Kanu said that the people would choose the projects that they want the government to deliver in their communities, adding that the cost of executing the project must not be more than N15 million.
He said that the government had put in place a measure known as equity participation to ensure that the programme would be a huge success.
Kanu stated that the communities participating in the programmes were expected to contribute 5 per cent of the amount for the project, adding that it would make them take ownership of the projects.
“When people don’t invest either efforts or resources in a venture, they tend not to take it seriously.
“In this way, the government expects the community to make some form of contribution to actually make them own those projects,” he said.
Also, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Policies and Interventions, Rev. Father Christian Anokwuru, urged communities interested in the programme to inform the agency through a letter of application, stating the project of their choice.
He said that the projects would be co-owned by the government and the benefiting community.
Anokwuru added that every prospective community must own a bank account through which the project funds would be transferred to the community.
