Akwa Ibom State governor, Pastor Umo Eno has disclosed that the 31 local government areas of the state have started collecting direct statutory allocations based on the LG autonomy granted them by the President Bola Tinubu-led federal government.
The governor, however, warned that he would not brook any excuses from erring council Chairman who indulges in funds misappropriation at the detriment to the development of the third tier administration, which he noted, remains the closest to the grassroots dwellers.
Governor Eno stated these while flagging off the maiden constituency briefing and Town Hall meeting across the 10 federal constituency at Abak local government stadium.
Eno, who announced a N5.1 billion package as grants for traders across the constituencies, charged the Chairmen to work in synergy with the state government for enhanced grassroots empowerment and infrastructural development.
No fewer than 833 traders drawn from the Abak, Etim Ekpo and Ika local governments making the federal constituency received their share of the N5.1 billion ARISE Grant, earmarked for farmers, traders, craftsmen and other artisans as supporting equipment to grow Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).
The breakdown of the disbursement included N111 million to 178 crop, fish and livestock farmers; N176 million to 442 traders of various categories, N30 million to six MSMEs operators and equipment support running into hundreds of millions to 198 craftsmen, as well as six beneficiaries of minibuses and three car beneficiaries.
The governor identified micro, small and medium scale enterprises as the engine that powers sustainable economic growth and restated his administration’s resolve to reach out to them both in the city and at remote locations across the rural communities to empower them and enhance their growth.
“We want to support small medium scale enterprises. These small businesses are the engine of the economy. These are the small traders, farmers, those people that have their handwork. Those are the people that help the economy, they employ two or three people and they provide food for their homes. We must support them. I know what you are doing and we will keep supporting you,” Governor Eno stressed.
Reaffirming his commitment to rural development, the Governor maintained that he would be satisfied to take governance to the rural communities and leave enduring legacies in their lives and environments.
This, he explained, was the reason to embark on painstaking profiling of potential beneficiaries to avoid urban-based enlistment of portfolio traders and farmers.
He attested to the utmost transparency and due diligence of the selection process, adding that the beneficiaries were real and verifiable, while also admonishing beneficiaries to make good use of the grant with the consciousness that “it is a one-off opportunity.”
“No more will we sit in Uyo and write names of people we do not know. We have profiled all these people. If you check the brochure or go to Akwa Ibom State Government website, you’ll see all their names, their phone numbers and their addresses so you can go and verify whether they got the monies or not.
“We have visited their businesses; we have visited their farms and they are not portfolio business people, so we have decided to come to their Federal Constituency to disburse the money and we will do same to others. But one thing is, once we support you, your name is captured on the portal so you cannot get it again. It will be some other people’s turn. So use your own well.
“I want to be remembered as the Governor who brought governance to the rural areas. I want to be remembered as the governor who interacted with the rural communities so they too can smell the fragrance of government. They can have good schools, good roads, good hospitals. They can have water, they can have basic necessities of life,” he said.
