ABIA STATE FOCUSES AT THE WORLD BANK — GOV IKPEAZU

The Governor of Abia State, Victor Okezie Ikpeazu was on Thursday received an invitation from the World Bank, Nigeria office which aimed is to strengthen the governance and implementing projects. 

The World Bank Country Director in Nigeria, Rachid Benmesssoud said that Abia has remained a top performer in practically all the areas where the World Bank is involved especially in the implementation of NEWWAP. 

"Today I honored the invitation of the World Bank, Nigeria Office. 
The objective of the meeting was to do a comprehensive appraisal of how the State has fared in its collaboration with the World Bank in the several areas where the Bank works with State Governments to strengthen governance and implement projects. 

"Most of the interventions of the Bank are activated under several stringent conditions including payment of counterpart funds by states and adherence to strict standards of fiscal transparency and institutional compliance. 

"World Bank Country Director in Nigeria, Rachid Benmessaoud chaired the session which was addressed by team leaders of the various areas of intervention."

"The summary of the reports is that Abia has remained a top performer in practically all the areas where the Bank is involved. In the payment of counterpart funds, Abia has performed creditably. Save for a few areas, Abia has kept faith substantially with her obligations in paying counterpart funds."

"In the implementation of NEWWAP, the World Bank says that “Abia has the most organized and fastest NEWMAP system in Nigeria” both in terms of payment of counterpart funds and the organizational efficiency. This has shown in top quality infrastructure and erosion control projects, both completed and ongoing.

The reason for this, according to the World Bank, is because “Governor Ikpeazu has provided great and strong leadership and has shown personal commitment to the success of NEWMAP in Abia State. This commitment by the Governor has resulted to stronger confidence on our part and more projects are underway. Indeed, the Abia NEWMAP will soon host the biggest NEWMAP Project in Nigeria”. 

"The bank noted however that there is one critical sector where we have performed below average which has resulted to our inability to access bigger funds. They challenged us to put more efforts in that area."

"I admitted that we had challenges in that area but made a firm commitment that things will change in a matter of days."

"I also assured that few areas where we have not scored 100% in counterpart funding will receive immediate attention."

"I thanked the World Bank for their consistent support to the state and assured that my administration will continue to keep faith with the programs of the Bank"

Governor Ikpeazu thanked and appreciated the bank for accepting to fund the expansion of the YESSO program in 17 Local Government Area of Abia State which currently has already covered 6 LGA in the state. 

"I particularly thanked the Bank for accepting to fund the expansion of the YESSO program throughout the 17 LGAs of the State by, updating the data base from the current 6 LGAs to cover the entire state."