Fayemi Disburses N360m to 24 Communities for Rural Devt

Victor Ogunje

As part of the ways to propel rural development in Ekiti State,  Governor  Kayode Fayemi, has disbursed  the   sum of N360 million communities across the 16 councils to undertake community projects.

Fayemi, who posited that the programme was intended to facilitate even distribution of public utilities,  said the fund was captured  under COVID-19 Action for Recovery and Economic Stimulus (CARES) Programme.

Governor Fayemi, while presenting  the cheques to benefiting communities in Ado-Ekiti, yesterday  said the gesture was in fulfilment of his electoral promises that every community would have a taste of his administration developmental agenda.

He explained the benefiting communities spread across the 16 local government areas with the provision of infrastructural facilities in education, healthcare service, water and sanitation forming key areas of interventions.

He promised that his administration will  continue to assist willing communities to execute people-oriented projects, saying such projects would help to reduce rural-urban migration and boost the economy of the communities.

He explained that the Ekiti State CARES Programme was developed by Federal Government in collaboration with World Bank and the Nigerian Governors Forum  aimed at mitigating the adverse effect of COVID-19 on the socio-economic well-being of the people.

“It is considered necessary to state here that the Covid-19 pandemic practically affected the global economy and dealt a deadly blow to socio-economic activities of the nations of the World.

“So, as part of the response, the Federal Government in collaboration with the World Bank and the Nigeria Governors Forum which I chaired, developed the State Cares Programme to cushion the effect of the pandemic most especially on the most vulnerable segment of our population.

“In implementing the CARES programme in Ekiti, the government would intervene, through the identified delivery Platforms to boost food security, facilitate recovery of households and SMSEs as well as enchanced delivery of social safety net and basic services.”

Fayemi admonished the community projects management to ensure workable sustainability plans are in place for the use and maintenance of their respective micro-projects.

The General Manager of the Ekiti State Community Development Agency, Mr. Yemi Alatise, said the initiative would help deepen the proactive responses of the government to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the socio-economic well being of the citizenry.

He noted the 24 benefitting communities had three months to deliver the projects which the funds were released for before the arrival of the independent verification agents by the end of July into the state.

This, he said, would be a key determinant for the continuous participations of the state’s community development agency in subsequent world bank programmes.

 A breakdown of N360 million presented to the communities, shows that each of the 24 communities  got between N10.8 million and N14.5m depending on the nature of their projects.