FCT Admin Moves Abuja To Next Level, Gives Out N197.5 Million To 23 Communities

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), has moved Abuja to the next level with the disbursement of N197,531,799.95 to 23 communities across the six area councils of the territory for infrastructure development, under the Community and Social Development Programmes (CSDP).

A breakdown of the amount shows that each of the 23 communities got between N5.3 million and N8.9 respectively, depending on the nature of their projects. Some of the projects include the purchase of speed boats, mechanized boreholes, rural electrification, community roads, blocks of classrooms, health centres, skills acquisition centres, among others.

The projects were selected by the rural communities under the supervision and approval of the Area Council authorities.

The Chief Press Secretary of the Administration, Anthony Oguleye, in a statement today, July 4, said that the FCT Permanent Secretary, Chinyeaka Ohaa presented cheques to the representatives of the 23 communities.

He quoted the Permanent Secretary as saying that the Community and Social Development Programme has been of great importance in the development of rural communities in the territory.

Ohaa commended the efforts of the Community and Social Development Project workers who represent their communities, for working hard to ensure that their people have access to basic social infrastructure through community driven development programmes, even as he advised them to ensure that the funds are judiciously utilized for the set purpose.

He said that the funds would enable the FCT Administration to assess the performance of the community driven development projects, the challenges they encounter and the way forward for successful implementation of the various community development and poverty elimination projects.

The Permanent Secretary assured that the Administration will continue to partner with various international and community agencies as well as other groups, towards the achievement of its vision of ensuring an acceptable standard of living for FCT people.

The Director of Economic Planning, Research and Statistics, Lawal Muhammed said that the CSDP is an intervention that effectively targets social and environmental infrastructure at the community level.

He said that the project works through a counterpart funding format whereby the communities would raise 10 percent of the total cost of their selected micro-projects (in cash and in kind), while the FCT CSDP matches that with 90 percent grant.

The Director explained that the idea is to encourage community ownership through community driven development approach by empowering them systematically to take charge of their lives instead of relying on government for all their needs.

He added that the various communities have been trained on project implementation (monitoring and supervision), book keeping, community procurement, conflict management and environmental issues among others to ensure the success of the programme.

The General Manager of the CSDP, Dr Shuaibu Adamu said also that the projects cut across all the rural communities and they include health, electricity, water, roads as well natural infrastructure projects.

He said that water related projects is top of the approved micro projects with about 124 projects, including 52 boreholes, while 22 health centres have also been approved in addition to the opening of 23 community roads. He said there are currently 19 ongoing micro projects, with 65 projects completed while work is yet to commence on 40 others.

The GM expressed optimism that the ongoing projects would have attained 85 percent completion by the end of July.