Oyo State Community and Social Development Agency (OYCSDA) has disbursed funds for the implementation of another 132 micro-projects across 66 communities in the state.
This was disclosed at a training programme organised by the agency at the House of Chiefs, Oyo State Secretariat, Agodi in Ibadan.
The training focused at project implementation procedures, aimed at bolstering resilience and economic recovery.
Chairman of OYCSDA, Abideen Adeaga, in his keynote address, expressed gratitude to Governor Seyi Makinde for his unwavering support in approving the collaboration programme with the World Bank and the federal government to achieve the gains of the Nigeria Community Action for Resilience and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) programme in Oyo State.
The NG-CARES initiative, domesticated as OYO-CARES, according to Adeaga, seeks to mitigate the negative impact of COVID-19 on vulnerable population, unemployed youths, small businesses and farmers.
He highlighted the programme’s significant interventions across 66 communities, marking a historical milestone in the state’s community development efforts.
He also acknowledged the Governor’s recent decision to increase project funding from ₦15 million to ₦18 million due to rising costs, ensuring that community-driven micro-infrastructure projects in areas like healthcare, education, water, and erosion control are successfully completed.
These efforts, according to him, are tailored towards eradicating the out-of-school children crisis by construction and renovation of schools with furniture and toilets, mitigate the effects of erosion on communities through intervention in culverts construction, as well as construction and renovation of community health centres and provision of motorised boreholes for the people in the various communities.
“This gesture from our Governor for approving the disbursement of funds to sixty-six communities across the State is unprecedented, so that OYCSDA would embark on such massive micro-projects.
“It is also noteworthy to state that the Governor approved the review of each Community Development Plan (CDP) from N15million to N18million, so as to take care of the economic realities of the day.
“All these are tailored towards total eradication of the out-of-school children syndrome in our state, eradication of water-borne diseases and to guide against untoward occurrences caused by erosion in these communities,” he added.
The General Manager of OYCSDA, Mr. Jelili Salau, emphasised the training’s dual purpose of building the capacity of CPMCs and initiating the disbursement of funds to kick-start community projects.
He applauded the governor’s foresight in approving funds for 66 concurrent projects and underscored the importance of collaboration among all stakeholders for the programme’s success.
The NG-CARES initiative, as stated by Salau, was designed, using a Community-Driven Development (CDD) approach, empowers communities to identify, plan, implement and manage their own micro-projects, with OYCSDA ensuring quality standards, supervision, and effective financing throughout the process.
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