World Bank urges Abia to implement councils’ poverty survey

The World Bank Group’s Task Team Leader for its assisted Community and Social Development Project (CSDP), Prof. Foluso Okumadewa, has said that the bank approved for implementation, the commendable poverty profile survey report of Abia State for the 17 councils.

He said however, that the implementation should be effected in the next batch of support from the World Bank in such a way that the poorest councils will benefit first.
 
He lauded the state’s CSDP for undertaking the survey and completing 15 projects between January and March 2018, which added to the 52 it did last year, saying that by World Bank assessment, Abia has implemented the CSDP commendably.

According to him, CSDP is one of the cardinal mechanisms the 32 states and Federal Capital Territory that keyed into the World Bank Assisted Project used to support their poor communities, particularly to increase their access to basic services.

The Team Leader who spoke to The Guardian in Umuahia, said he was in the state with a team that included the National Coordinator of Federal Project Support Unit, Dr. Abdulrahman Obaje for a routine meeting with the Board, Management and Staff of the Abia State Agency for Community and Social Development Project.

The board has Chief Chijioke Onwutuebe as Chairman and Dr. Chinatu Njoku, as General Manager.“We come to states regularly to meet with the CSDP Board, Management and Staff, to assess what has been done or being done, how they have utilised or are utilising the services of the CSDP with a view to offering suggestions on how the issues that may arise would be addressed based on the experiences in other countries and states,” he said.

The state’s CSDP General Manager, Njoku, told The Guardian that such visits encouraged them to strive for achievements that will impact more positively on the poor communities.