The Kwara State government has spent over N4.6bn in counterparts funding for the construction of 209.77 kilometres of rural roads across the 16 local governments area of the state.
The state’s coordinator of Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project (RAAMP), Dr Isaac Kolo, disclosed this at the 47th Media Parliament of the Kwara State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
The event was themed “Ending Rural/Urban Migration Through Quality Road Infrastructure”.
Kolo said about 66.5 kilometers of the rural roads would be constructed in phase one to cover Asa, Ilorin West, Ilorin East, Oyun and Edu local government areas of the state .
He said 39.6 kilometers of the roads would be constructed in Baruten along the border of Benin Republic, amongst others.
He explained that an agro-logistic has been put in place to upgrade market infrastructure across the three senatorial districts of the state to meet international standard.
The RAAMP coordinator said the opening of the rural areas through the construction of road network would reduce the challenges of rural-urban migration.
Kolo said road network are constructed in a way to link the rural dwellers to a market very close to them to sell their farm produce.
He appealed to the residents of the state to take ownership of the road infrastructure and report any challenge to the government for proper attention.
Earlier, the chairman of Kwara State Council of the NUJ, AbdulLateef Ahmed, said journalists have the responsibility of keeping the public informed on the programmes and policies of government and make the public officers accountable.
