Gbenga Sodeinde in Ado Ekiti
A civil society organization, New Initiative for Social Development (NISD), in collaboration with a group of stakeholders in Ekiti State have lunched an action programme tagged: ‘Tax For Service Group Demands for 2024 budget’.
The groups comprising artisans, hoteliers, CSOs, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), market women, traditional chiefs will monitor some of the projects captured in the Ekiti State 2024 budget.
Speaking at the launching of the programme in Ado Ekiti, the project coordinator of NISD, Foluke Oyeleye, explained that there is need to monitor the projects for effective and quality delivery.
According to her, if people can pay their taxes, hence the need for government agencies and parastatals to judiciously use the money for the benefit of tax payers.
On his own, the Chairman of the CSO in Ekiti State, Prof. Christopher Oluwadare, noted that members of the groups would be going out to ensure that tax paid by residents were used for society development with regards to roads, school, hospitals and other basic needs.
He said such step would put ministries in charge of the projects on their toes to make sure that money meant for particular projects were judiciously used.
Some of the projects to be monitored during the year include the renovation of 20 public schools, construction of ICT laboratory, empowerment of 500 youths, economic development of women and school girls and purchase of sewing machines for tailors.
