By Tony Adibe
The Enugu State Governor, Chief Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi has expressed hope that the performance of the PDP governorship candidate, Dr. Peter Mbah, if he is elected the next governor in 2023, will surpass his own achievements.
Governor Ugwuanyi said this when the various World Bank development agencies/Assisted Projects that are partnering with his administration in the socio infrastructure sector development, particularly in the rural areas, paid him a thank you visit alongside the beneficiaries and also a solidarity visit in support of Dr Peter Mbah.
The Governor, who said that he was happy about the committed efforts of the development partners, however, asked the beneficiaries to cast their votes for Peter Mbah, which will be a continuation of his administration.
But Mbah, while lauding the various projects executed by the development partners, extolled the vision and mission of Governor Ugwuanyi in partnering with the World bank, stating that it is a mark of a focused administration in view of the fact that World bank demands maximum transparency and strict compliance to counterpart funding from every of their partners.
He commended Governor Ugwuanyi for paying the state government’s counterpart funding for the projects and promised to continue with Governor Ugwuanyi’s vision and mission in this direction if he is elected as the next governor of the state.
He appealed to the Enugu State electorate to cast their votes for him and other candidates of PDP contesting for elective positions in the 2023 general elections.
“We have been blessed with continuous leadership quality of PDP in Enugu state. We wish to continue on the template set by Governor Ugwuanyi. But we need to secure the mandate of the people,” Mbah stated.
NewsBits recalls that the partnership between Enugu State Government and the World Bank has seemingly facilitated the rate and pace of rural development, creation of job opportunities and empowerment of some of the rural dwellers in the past seven years of Governor Ugwuanyi’s administration in Enugu state.
It was learnt that the above development basically informed the reason some of the Development partners, Contractors, Beneficiaries under the banner of Enugu State Development Partners Family, decided to pay a ‘Thank You and Solidarity Visit’ to Governor Ugwuanyi on Wednesday, December 21st, 2022.
Some of the Development partners include Rural Access and Mobility Projects [RAMP] through which Governor Ugwuanyi’s administration has constructed over 418 kilometer of rural roads across the 17 Local Government Areas of the state, asphalted about 49.1 kilometer of such roads within Isi Uzo and Uzo Uwani local government areas of the state. Governor Ugwuanyi’s administration through RAMP has also built culvert and bridges across twenty-three river crossings in the state.
Governor Ugwuanyi also made tremendous landmark achievements in the area of Agricultural production, processing and Marketing, through APPEALS, another development partner. Others include NEWMAP, SOCU, IFAD, CLVA, CSDA etc with funds jointly provided by the state government and the World Bank.
At the Thank You visit which was held within government house Enugu, the Special Adviser to the Enugu State Governor/Focal Person of the World Bank Development Partners Assisted Projects, Mr. Nnadi Uche Fidelis on behalf of all the development partners, appraised Governor Ugwuanyi’s diligence and policy on transparency which facilitated the execution of these projects across rural communities in the state.
He recalled that the State Project Implementation Units [SPIU] of the various Projects, programmes of the development Partners in the state, had operated secretly and by so doing aided and abetted financial misconducts, but the interventions of Governor Ugwuanyi through the establishment of the state focal office for development partners assisted projects/programmes reduced the cases of financial impurities to the barest minimum.
The APPEALS Project Coordinator, Mrs. Ihuoma Eze disclosed that the project has been able to engage over seven thousand women and youths in Agricultural production, processing and marketing of products. She said that they have equally trained Youths and Women securing grants of up to two million naira adding that so far 857 beneficiaries have assessed the grant.
Eze disclosed that APPEALS has constructed a total of 13kilometer rural roads across nine communities in Enugu state and expressed gratitude to Governor Ugwuanyi for prompt payment of the state government’s counterpart funds.
The Executive Secretary of Enugu Primary Health Development Agency, Dr George Ugwu explained that the partnership with World Bank in the health sector facilitated the establishment of 260 primary health centers across the state, of which every one of them has received drugs worth over one million naira.
Dr Ugwu emphasised that the giant strides recorded by Governor Ugwuanyi’s administration in the primary health sector was rated high by the National primary health care office as one of the best in the country. He also expressed gratitude to Governor Ugwuanyi for prompt release of the state counterpart funds.
