By Roseline Agu
Gov. Peter Mbah of Enugu State, said his administration has made landmark achievements towards transforming the state better in the last 100 days in office.
The governor stated this on Wednesday during a live broadcast to mark his administration’s 100 days in office.
Enumerating the achievements, Mbah said the issue of insecurity in the state has been dealt with, while the unlawful Monday Sit-at-Home order has also been addressed.
He said there’s no economic development of any sort that would be possible in an environment of insecurity.
“We have launched and procured a number of vehicles to enhance the effectiveness and mobility of the Distress Response Squad in the State, and has commenced the roll out of a statewide CCTV camera network which will provide 247 surveillance across the State.
“In this same vein, we are in the advanced stages of establishing a Security Trust Fund to make our heightened security posture more sustainable in the long term,”he said.
On the energy supply and management, the governor, said his administration had signed the State Power into law, which domesticates the Electricity Act 2023 and now gives the State regulatory power to establish an Enugu State Electricity Market.
This, he said, would attract investors to expand power generation and distribution across the State.
“Within 100 days in office, investors have been attracted from all over the world, also, best of private sector and the development partner sector with the likes of AfDB, AFREXIM, FCDO, the World Bank, amongst others.
“It also marks the beginning of the process of working with the investment world to curate our project pipeline with the aim of preparing them for investment in the not distant future.
“On attracting external capital, we have repositioned the state in its relationship with key development partners like the World Bank, AFD (the French Development Agency) and opened the door to new funding for the state’s projects,”he said.
Mbah said the state shared the funding for the International Fund For Agricultural Development (IFAD), Value Chain Development Programme, Development of Agricultural Value Chains, totaling N274m, which would facilitate the receipt of N1.2billion from IFAD.
He said the payment would enhance smallholder productivity, increase the volume and quality of marketable produce by strengthening farmers’ organisations as well as supporting smallholder production.
“We have also met all our obligations regarding joining the World Bank Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support project (L-PRES), a 6-year project aimed at improving livestock productivity, resilience and commercialization of selected value chains.
“We have met all the obligations for joining the Nigeria for Women project, including committing over N400m as our counterpart funding for the project, which is a strategic long term partnership between the FG and World Bank to support the government’s goal of ensuring gender equality.
“This arrangement will result in the inflow of up to 10m dollars to Enugu State over the planned period for the execution of projects to boost the economic capacity of our women in Enugu State and consequently our households.
“In line with these initial steps, we plan to continue to leverage the support of these and other development partners and multilateral agencies to bring development to Ndi Enugu,”Mbah said.
In the area of pension and gratuity payments, Mbah said his administration was able to reconfirm payment of all outstanding arrears.
“Further to our commitment to increasing revenue generation and blocking all income leakages to make government more efficient, we have undertaken a detailed review of operational processes in key MDAs.
“We have commenced a full automation of all the key functions of the State government and have addressed the issue of fiscal energy and environmental cleanliness as well as water supply in all the household in the state,” he added.
The governor said his administration planned a new Enugu City, to allow for decongestion and rapid growth, while providing real estate investment opportunities for Ndi Enugu as well as investors from the diaspora.
“Nothing in the world seems matter to me than making Ndi Enugu a happier people,” the governor reiterated.