The Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, has said his administration would ensure completion and sustenance of a total 675 Community and Social Development micro Projects across rural communities in the state within the timeframe of delivery.
Fayemi gave the assurance on Thursday when he received the National Coordinator of the CSDP, Dr. Adulkarim Obaje, and his team in Ado Ekiti during a monitoring and documentation tour of CSDP projects in the South West.
The Governor, who was represented by Secretary to the State Government, Biodun Oyebanji, explained that Community project is one of the five pillars of his administration as entrenched in Agricultural and rural development agenda.
He said the Community and Social Development Project has brought governance in the State closer to the people at the grassroots, adding that this has enabled the people not only to participate in the conception, implementation and supervision of the projects. but also take ownership of such projects.
This, he said, has enhanced the sustainability of such projects across communities in the State.
Describing exclusion of communities in the conception of their own project as one of the bane of development, the Governor said CSDP represents and promotes a bottom to top approach to development that permits communities to be deeply involved in all the stages of project execution.
The Governor solicited for further inclusion of the State as beneficiary in other community projects that would be executed by the organisation across the country with an assurance to support the success of such projects.
He said: “I am aware that we came third in the assessment throughout the country and that speaks to something about the commitment of government to rural development and I can assure you that these projects and several other projects in Ekiti State will be sustained.
“What Community and Social Development Projects represent is the bottom-top approach to development, a situation whereby you partner with the community to ask for their needs and to collaborate with them.
“The beauty of this is that it allows the community to own the project themselves because one of the bane of development is when government decides to force development on the people without asking them about their priority.
“A situation whereby you have limited resources that are limited, the best way to spread these resources is to ensure that communities are taken on board in the conception of projects and one thing that CSDP has done to Ekiti is that it has brought government very near to the people because these communities will now sit down and tell you that this is what is pressing and because they are part and parcel of it, part of the conception, implementation and supervision, sustainability will not be a problem.
“You have told us Ekiti State did very well and that there are success stories in Ekiti State to be told.
“We assure you that any support you gave would be matched by our actions and commitment as a State.”
Earlier in his remarks, Obaje who was represented by his Technical Assistant, Tunde Falola, said the tour of the projects was to document and show case the success story of Community and Social Development Projects executed in the state.
Dr. Obaje said the initiative would afford the organisation to show to the people of the State and the country that the money invested in such projects were judiciously used and that more communities were still yarning to be included in the future projects.
Obaje, while commending the support received from the Ekiti State Government, disclosed that the state had about 675 micro projects at 95 per cent completion with the hope that they would be delivered before the end of September.
He revealed that the State Government has accessed about N3.3 billion in the execution of the projects with the hope that more communities would benefit in the next phase of the project.
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