The Ondo State government is set to construct 700 kilometres of rural roads across the three senatorial districts in the state.
The Special Adviser to Governor Rotimi Akeredolu on Rural and Community Development, Mr Kolawole Babatunde, said this in Akure, the state capital. Babatunde was featured during an interactive session with the Correspondents Chapel of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, Ondo State.
Babatunde said that the roads which will be carried out in phases, will be funded through World Bank and the state counterpart fund.
He pointed out that the roads would bring about the rapid transformation of the rural communities across the state.
According to him “the 700 kilometres would be constructed under Rural Access and Marketing Project (RAAMP), a World Bank-assisted programme.
The former lawmaker, while explaining that state government keyed into RAAMP for ease of transporting agricultural products and prevent frequent spoilage of farm produce, stressed that revamping of rural roads would help to reduce issues of food scarcity and grant access for the rural parts of the state for marketing and farming activities.
“This project will be broken down based on the roads we are intervening in and we’ve gotten about €3.5 million and about US$ 500,000.
“This is aside from the N1.4 billion governor Rotimi Akeredolu has released as counterpart fund to us.
“The way it works is that the funding has to get approval from the world bank. We write to them stating the roads we are intervening in, and the cost, then the World Bank will give approval.
He noted that since Akeredolu’s inauguration as governor, he has continued to show uncommon commitment to his pact with the people to ensure the transformation of the rural areas of the state through the Directorate of Rural and Community Development and the two World Bank-assisted Agencies under the Directorate; the Ondo State Community and Social Development Agency (ODCSDA) and the Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP).
“For every action we take as directorate and agency, we get the approval of Mr. Governor first. Then, it comes to us, we finetune, then it goes to the World Bank.
“As counterpart fund, we’ve gotten N1.4 billion and when a state pushes such amount, you could be rest assured of what will come in as world bank intervention”, he said.
According to him, “We are not limited to the €3.5 million and the US$ 500,000, it is a pool. It depends on how we are able to fast-track our construction which will determine the number the amount we will be able to access.
“We have about 20 states in the project but it has been my prayer that we access more funds than any other state in the country so that we can have more rural roads,” he said.
He noted that the present administration’s decision to be one of the participating states in RAAMP was borne out of the concerned attitude of Governor Akeredolu and the desire to change the negative narrative associated with getting access to the rural part of the state.
Babatunde noted that, for proper management of supply chains of agricultural products and raw materials from production to delivery to the consumer, the state will establish an agro-logistics hub across the three Senatorial districts of the state.
The Special Adviser said that another
N783 million grant was facilitated for interventions in 48 communities and 6 vulnerable groups under Nigeria Covid-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) programme.
According to him” It is worthy to note that about 13 communities having around 26 micro-projects are at the verge of benefitting from the agency’s interventions before the end of the third quarter of 2023.
“It is also noteworthy that project interventions have recorded 76,000 direct beneficiaries to date and it is projected that the benefitting population should reach 160,000 before the end of 2023,” he said.
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