The Abia State Government has announced plans to unveil the State’s 25-year development plan.
The Commissioner for Information, Prince Okey Kanu, disclosed this on Monday in Umuahia while briefing Journalists on the outcome of this Week’s State Executive Council Meeting presided over by Governor Alex Otti.
The Commissioner revealed that the plan is a
strategic future-proof document that will articulate the State’s development trajectory for the next 25 years.
He said, “Governor Alex Otti, will soon be unveiling the state’s 25-year development plan. The plan will outline the short, medium, and long-term aggregate goals in a sequential progression with the ultimate goal of developing the State in a structured manner, regardless of the administration in power.
“The document will include funding pathways for the plan. Upon the unveiling of the document, necessary legal backing will be put in place to ensure that it runs its full course in 25 years.
“This document will give further vent to the developmental trajectory of this administration, as eloquently captured by the stellar achievements of the past 30 months of this government”.
Prince Kanu also revealed that the Abia State Material Testing Laboratory is ready for commissioning by the Governor.
He added that the operation of the Lab will ensure that collapse of private or public buildings in the State is mitigated or totally eliminated, as the case may be.
The Commissioner also added
that the second batch of the 2025 Abia State Teachers recruitment exercise that commenced on November 6 2025 was officially closed to new applications.
“It the end, following the closure of the portal, it was discovered that a total of 28,813 applications were received.
“However, following the official closure of the portal, applicants have been granted a window to verify their applications before the short-listing of candidates commences for their CBT tests.
“All the applicants have until the 5th of December to complete this verification process to enable them to be shortlisted for CBT tests” he stated.
Prince Kanu added that the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education recently conducted an annual school census in the State adding that the made-in-digital annual school census commenced on May 20, 2025.
According to him, “The census was the first of such exercises in the State in the past 24 years.
He added that the whole idea was to generate necessary data that would aid the Ministry in planning and policy-making for Primary and Secondary School categories in the Education sector of the State.
‘A number of interesting data and statistics were generated during the exercise. First, a total of 4,150 schools participated in the exercise statewide. A total of 1,687,326 learners also participated.
“A total figure of 45,151 staff participated in the exercise. It was discovered during this exercise that most proprietors of Private schools were reluctant to participate or diverge information concerning their school enrollment figures. But despite this situation, a number of very interesting highlights were recorded during the exercise.
“one of the major highlights of this exercise was the distribution of 1,221 Android tablets to school heads and data officers across the state, the training of Public School Heads, head Teachers, Principals, Private School Proprietors, and 100 mentors facilitated by the National Education Management Information System.
“One of the outcomes also was the deployment of mentors across the 17 LGAs of the state to support the digital data upload. All schools successfully uploaded data digitally using the NEMIS portal for the very first time in the State.
“The exercise therefore speaks eloquently to the reforms that are ongoing in the state’s basic and secondary education sectors”.
The State’s information boss also pointed out that the adult and non-formal education program has commenced and is running well across the state.
He said the State Government through the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education wants to ensure that residents who are not privileged to acquire Education earlier in life are given the opportunity to do so even later in life.
“This is first to make them employable or armed with the right knowledge that will aid them in their chosen lines of endeavor”, Kanu insisted.
On infrastructure, the Commissioner said the State’s Ministry of Works engaged in direct labor works in 50 locations across the State during the period under review.
He said five of such projects were completed while seven new projects were added to their maintenance basket of the ministry.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Publicity Mr Ferdinand Ekeoma and the General Manager Umuahia Capital development Authority were present during the briefing.
