Anambra to attract more donor agencies – Okoye

ANAMBRA State Commissioner for Economic Planning, Budget and Development Partners, Mark Okoye said the presence of donor partners’ activities in the state has made significant contributions to the development of the state.

  Okoye stated this at the ‘2019 End of the Year Inter-Agency and Coordination Review Meeting’ held in Awka to review the achievements, constraints, lessons learnt and assess the relevance of programme interventions of donor agencies in the state from January-December 2019.

  The Commissioner said the donor agencies have done much for the state, “Most of the resources to fund the intervention projects come from donor partners. The intervention of our partners is everywhere in the state. When we talk about intervention programmes, it isn’t only about capital projects as some people think, human capital development is equally involved.

  “Many Anambarians have been trained for skills acquisition or empowered in other instances. They should keep up the good work they are doing because it is helping the state. Their interventions are helping in reducing poverty in the state, Gov. Obiano has created a conducive environment in the state for donor agencies to come and intervene. We look forward to attracting more donor agencies,“ he said.

  The Overseeing Officer of the ministry, Arthur Iweanya, said regarding the year in review the State made giant strides. Aside the state paying her counterpart funds, it really benefited from the intervention programmes. “Take a look at the UNICEF activities, many women and children benefited from it. The ANCDA which is involved in the development of our communities has dug boreholes for some communities that have problem of water; this led to a drastic reduction in waterborne diseases.”

  “You can see the activity of agency like NEWMAP, they helped in tackling erosion in some of the communities prone to erosion. I appeal to the donor agencies to continue with their sponsorship of various projects in the state. We are also looking for new donors to come to the state because Gov. Willie Obiano is donor friendly.”

  He called for the provision to be made for 2020 taking into cognizance the impact of COVID-19 pandemic and appealed for more palliative measures for ndi Anambra from the state and donor agencies to ensure we don’t lose most of what we have targeted for 2020.

  Head of Department, Partnership Coordination Department, Ministry of Economic Planning, Budget and Development Partners, Ebere Aghaji in her remarks said the meeting was apt for proper evaluation and assessment, “It helps to avoid the duplication of activities. The meeting enables us to know our partners’ contribution to the state and appreciate it, besides evaluating what the state has contributed to the projects going on in the state.”

  She said the State through Gov. Obiano has contributed immensely to the intervention projects that every year the state releases the Government Counterpart Cash Contribution, GCCC; the state’s government fund that supports partners’ contributions and these have encouraged the partners to embark on more projects.

  This meeting was supposed to have been held early this year but was postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic.