‘Recession: Levy waivers  working in Anambra’

In spite of complaints trailing the implementation of Governor Willie Obiano’s levy waivers for commercial motor-bikes and keke operators, the   Anambra State commissioner for Information, Communications and Strategy, Ogbuefi Tony Nnacheta has said  the economic package  was a huge success in cushioning the  effects of the economic recession on the  people of the state.

Nnacheta who spoke yesterday at Awka, the State capitl in a post State Excutive  said the state  government has set aside fund for the development of 500 hectares of land in all agrarian communities across the three Senatorial Zones in the state.

He said  it was  “part of the infrastructural stimulus package to support out-grower schemes and link them up to big industries in the state”.

The Commissioner  urged Anambra citizens to form co-operatives, town union groups and social clubs in order to benefit from the agricultural scheme, assuring that government would sustain its policy for economic growth in the state.

He  also said  the N3.6 billion set aside  to fund the on-going N20 million choose-your-project community programme  in all the 179 communities in the State has commenced in earnest, noting that each community has been allocated N20 million to spend on their most pressing concern.

Nnacheta said “the projects will also be executed by the community and strictly supervised by the State’s Tenders Board and the community members in line with best practice”.

According to the Commissioner 17 communities have flaged off  their projects with the contractors on  site, 32 other communities have signed their contracts, 34 communities have produced their contractors , while 29 others have submitted their agreed projects to the tenders board for approval.

He also aid   15 communities have i issues among them and a committee has  been set up to look into their problems., saying  that to ensure  hardship was reduced in the state, the governor also announced automatic employment for all graduates who are physically challenged persons from the state.

“We are sending them to the state civil service, and all these packages we have lined up has never been done anywhere in Nigeria or the west African sub-region,” Nnacheta said.

The Commissioner  said government  has also reviewed the activities of Anambra Traffic Management Agency (ATMA), explaining  that the Governor frowns at attempt to malign  anybody.

While calling  on  ATMA to improve  on its services especially on traffic control, he  urgedthe  Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) not to introduce illegal fines on traffic offenders including wrong parking and driving against traffic.

He said, “Those offences are now charged at N5,000 instead of N10,000. The idea of the reduction is just to discourage people from doing the wrong thing, else government would have removed it entirely.”

The governor had last month announced the introduction of Economic Stimulus Package which involved granting waivers  in levy and  taxes payment for some categories  of people in the state to mitigate the impact of the economic recession.

According to Nnacheta, some states  across the country have been sending delegates to understudy its recession mitigation package, even though he could not mention them.

But some artisans who the package were targeted at still complained that the waiver have not taken effect as they still pay exorbitant levies on daily basis.