Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, has pledged his administration’s commitment to providing the required 30% counterpart funding to support the European Union’s (EU) proposed interventions in the state.
Governor Otti gave the assurance, Tuesday, when he received in audience, the EU delegation to Nigeria and the ECOWAS, led by the Head of Section, Green and Digital Economy, Mrs Inga Stefanowicz.
The Governor noted that the potential partnership between the state government with the EU in three key areas such as the hydro power, circular economy, and human development aligns with his administration’s policy thrust.
“The three projects are like music to my ears because they are projects that we have started even before this visit and all we want you to do is just to plug in.
“If you’re looking for 30% , we already have done more than that but even if it doesn’t count, we can also put the money down”, Otti assured.
He highlighted the state government’s efforts in declaring a state of emergency in some of the key areas as well as the progress made in other priority areas.
“Some of the priority projects, are also of importance to me. We had earlier on assumption of office declared a state of emergency on them.
“When we came, we found that there was a lot of areas requiring attention.
“Because we recognize that Rome was not built in a day, we choose areas of high impact including environmental sanitation, security, healthcare, education and power“, Gov Otti stated.
He expressed hope that the partnership between the state and the EU would yield significant benefits for the people of Abia State and reiterated that the state government would live up to it’s financial obligation to kick start the project.
Earlier, the Head of Section, Green and Digital Economy EU delegation to Nigeria and the ECOWAS, Mrs Inga Stefanowicz said they came to seek partnership with the Abia State government in some key areas of priorities including hydro power, circular economy and human development.
Mrs. Stefanowicz explained that Abia State was selected as one of the states to benefit from the EU’s partnership, and emphasized the need for the state to commit the required 30% counterpart funding to qualify.
She expressed optimism that collaboration between Àbia and the EU would have a positive impact on the lives of residents and contribute to the state’s economic growth.
