The Special Adviser to the Ekiti State Governor on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Mrs. Bunmi Dipo-Salami has said that the 8-point agenda of the Fayemi led administration was fashioned after the time-bound developmental goals agreed to by member states of the United Nations and International Development Institutions at the United Nation’s Millennium Summit in New York in September 2000 tagged Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Speaking in Ado Ekiti at the 11th edition of the Ministerial Press Briefing organized by the state Ministry of Information and Civic Orientation, Mrs. Dipo-Salami said that the strategy was to fast-track development by addressing a whole range of issues to improve the well-being of the people and transform the society.
Mrs. Dipo-Salami stressed that the focus is to eliminate poverty in the society, make education a right and not a privilege as well as engender gender equality and justice among other things.
The Special Adviser who noted emphatically that the state government has shown commitment to achieving the laudable goals of the MDGs, said that in spite of the lean resources accrued to the state from the federation account, the present administration has consistently paid its counterpart funds towards achieving the lofty goal of making life more meaningful for the people.
According to her, the state MDGs office has expended about N3.4billion on various projects since inception of the present administration in 2010, saying that her office is however expecting a sum of about N444million as counterpart fund from the Federal Government to execute the projects lined up for 2012.
Giving a breakdown of achievements recorded through MDGs from 2010 to 2013, Mrs. Dipo-Salami highlighted the state priority areas of intervention under the Conditional Grant Scheme of the MDGs to include water and health sectors.
She listed projects implemented in 2011 and 2012 to include construction of five Water Treatment Plants (WTP) at Ido-Ile, Efon , Okemesi, Ipole-Iloro and Erijiyan, supply and installation of eight High Lift Pumps in Isinbode, Oke-Ako, Ifaki and Aramoko, 4.5kilometre extension of dedicated 300mm steel pipeline from Ado Ekiti Headwork to Mary Hill as well as an additional 2,940metres pipeline extension from Mary Hill reservoir towards Ajibade lane, Idolofin Street and Housing
Ado Ekiti.
The state MDGs helmsman attributed the failure of the 2007-2008 MDGs projects to the indiscriminate locating of Water Fetching Points in places where there were no water as well as use of substandard materials by contractors commissioned by the previous administration to execute the projects.
On the N375million Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) scheme that was recently flagged off in Ado Ekiti, Mrs. Dipo-Salami emphasized that the selection of the 2,250 benefiting households was devoid of political colouration.
The Governor aide stressed that the CCT beneficiaries who would each receive a sum of N5,000 per month for a period of one year and an additional grant of N100,000 at the end of the scheme which is expected to be invested in agric-related business were methodically chosen as part of efforts to extend cash transfer to extremely poor households on the condition that they make certain investments in the human capital development of their children or wards.
In his remarks, the Commissioner for Information and Civic Orientation, Mr. Tayo Ekundayo who spoke through the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mr. Kola Ajumobi, noted that the forum was organized to highlight the achievements and constraints of the state government in all sphere since the office of the MDGs practically sum up the entire 8-point agenda of the administration.
The Commissioner said that the Fayemi Administration had recorded giant strides in all spheres of human development since its assumption of office in 2010, emphasizing that efforts eradicating poverty under the present administration was unprecedented in the history of the state
Last modified: September 11, 2013
