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Tuesday, May 1, 2012

EU begins execution of micro projects in Niger Delta

THE Minister of National Planning Commission, Dr Shamsudeen Usman, on Monday, said the European Union (EU) had started the execution of various micro projects valued at 71.50 million euro in the nine states in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.

He said the EU provided 45.5 million euro out of the cost of the projects, while the beneficiary communities provided the balance of 26 million euro.
Speaking at a ceremony to officially inaugurate the MPP9 projects in Akure, the minister said the projects include palm oil processing mill, markets, health centres, industrial boreholes, blocks of classrooms and civic centres among others.

He noted that the MPP9 was an European Union-Federal Government intervention programme covering the nine Niger Delta states of Abia, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers.
He said the MPP9 was designed to work with reform minded local governments, where the authorities were interested in cooperating and implementing the micro-projects in a transparent and consultative way.
Usman said: “The projects are aimed at reducing poverty in the rural and sub-urban communities in the region through the promotion of gender equality and participation in local governance and development.
“It will also enhance transparency and accountability in local government administration, provision of more access to basic health facilities, education, water supply, sanitation and roads among others.”
Ondo State governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, pledged that his administration would collaborate with the beneficiary communities and the contractors to ensure the completion of the projects on time and to set machineries in motion to sustain them.

He said his administration had executed 425 projects in over 300 communities across the state in the last three years at a cost of over N3 billion.

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