The team leader, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness Activity (State2State) Nigeria, Dr. Sam Onyia, has urged the present administration in Ebunyi State to adopt the State Development Plan (SDP) document drafted by key stakeholders of the state.
Dr. Onyia said the document was signed for implementation by the past administration and noted that it is a robust document that can help the government if well implemented.
He commended Governor Francis Nwifuru on his commitment to education, health, water, sanitation and hygiene.
Onyia spoke during the Ebonyi field office State State2State year 5 work plan consultative meeting held at Nike Lake Resort, Enugu, Enugu State at the weekend.
He said the key areas are priority sectors for the new administration, adding that the governor had been following up the key sectors with concrete actions to back up the promises he made.
“In the recent budget performance analysis, there is a remarkable improvement in the funding of the key sectors. When we came to Ebonyi State, we saw that it does not have a blueprint for development which is a necessity for the socioeconomic development of every government. All national and sub-national governments are expected to have a blueprint generally called development plan.
“The state requested our support in that area and we did that successfully. What we did was a 25-year development plan as requested by the past administration. We started the process by bringing together all the stakeholders from the 171 wards in the state and also engaged some experts to facilitate the process. The stakeholders made valuable inputs and all the inputs were put together and a baseline was provided which was used to develop the plan.
“It is a very robust document that can help the government, if it is well implemented. All critical issues of good governance were aptly captured in that document. It is indeed a very useful and valuable roadmap for the state’s sustainable development. It was signed off for implementation by the immediate past administration and we hope the present administration will adopt and implement it,” he said.
The commissioner for grants and donor agencies, Mr. Solomon Azi, commended USAID State2State for all the interventions and appealed to the agency to find a way to extend its stay in the state.
