Assessing Ikpeazu’s 300 days in office (1)

Before Gov. Okezie Ikpeazu’s administration came on board on May 29th 2015, Abia was almost on its knees. 300 days after the infrastructural deficit that bedeviled the state,especially Aba, its economic heartbeat, has been addressed,and the governor has religiously kept his promise of “providing the enabling environment and infrastructure to facilitate the growth and development of Abia and its people; positioning it as a premier residential, business and tourism destination, with the ultimate objective of uplifting the lives of our people”.

Despite the downward trend of our economy that has reduced Abia’s previous federal revenue allocation to half,Ikpeazu’s administration is active on 65 road construction sites simultaneously with 27 completed.

These roads are accompanied with solid drainage with the installation 800 street lightings and construction of bridges. Also, communities that have not seen electricity since Adam have been electrified.52 Water Schemes were revitalised and the new government house and new workers secretariat premises powered by solar energy.

To go this far, certain structures have been put in place to drive these policies and programmes. One of them is the Aba Urban Renewal Committee whose mandates are to drive the new effort towards the infrastructural renewal of the city; ensure that Aba is transformed to a city of basic modern amenities;restoring order and sanity in building of shops, kiosk, office and residential buildings; and to drive the new programmes towards the park reform and general rehabilitation work. The committee was recently elevated to status of a full-fledge government parastatal with the name, Aba Urban Renewal Authority to oversee the general rehabilitation work in Aba including waste management and revenue generation.

Indeed, Abia is on a speed lane to achieve the Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs) of the country. The state has since inaugurated the technical board of the state micro, small and medium enterprises, financial, trade and investment promotion scheme.

The essence of inaugurating the board is to lay a solid foundation for sustainable growth and development of entrepreneurs and businesses to succeed and compete favourably in the global business environment. It will be recalled that due to the state’s strategic position as the economic nerve centre of the South East, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) has given approval for Abia to host the CBN entrepreneurship development centre for the South East. The scheme would provide a platform for the training of over 6, 000 beneficiaries.

In a bid to close the gap of infrastructural development between rural areas and the cities, the administration has constituted the Abia State Rural Infrastructural Development Initiative (ASTRIDE). The initiative is charged with providing at least one project in each of the 184 INEC wards in the 17 local government areas in the state. The committees are expected to choose sites for the projects and the type of projects among project lines of the state government. This translates into planned rural electrification and beautification of Ohafia, the third largest urban centre in the state.
The emphasis in Abia now is on diversification of the economy.The governor has taken steps to secure N1 billion loan from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to boost agricultural production.

The loan, which would be strictly applied for the development of agriculture is going to be purely for genuine farmers and not for political patronage. The loan becomes necessary due to certain factors. The new philosophy is to engender agriculture revolution in the state to ensure ensure food security for all citizens. And also to engender youth employment in the agriculture sector and the attendant economic empowerment. Already, the ministry of agriculture has been directed to come up with a blue print for the programme .Two, agriculture is one of the thematic areas of Gov. Ikpeazu’s administration.

The agricultural revolution in the state is not restricted to the above. In the days ahead, Abia will assume the poultry- hub of the country with a model poultry that would boast of the best modern technology. According to the governor, what the farmer needs is to walk into the poultry with his day-old chick. There is collaborative effort in this direction with Obasanjo Farms. Also, there is concerted efforts for the massive proliferation of cassava,cocoa and oil palm .The state launched The Return to Farming and Women in Fish Farming Initiative. The initiative is aimed at empowering the youths and women by setting up farming cooperatives which will help drive key government policy as regards agriculture. The government through the initiative will make land, finance and training accessible for farmers. The vision is to explore the agro-economy as a support base for the state economy.

Government public finance has been restructured in the state and there are serious efforts to harmonise taxes and levies. Intensive war is also waged against double taxation. While government has blocked leakages through which its revenues leak, touts and illegal agents in revenue drive have been eradicated in the revenue generation process.
Ukegbu is the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to Gov. Ikpeazu on media.