Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State has announced that the government has set aside N150 million this year as counterpart fund for the take off of the World Bank Assisted Rural Access and Mobility Project, RAMP.
Represented by the state Commissioner for Works, Mr Godwin Madueke, said the government was passionate about the project, adding that it paid N35 million in 2008 and N69.6 million in 2009.
The Governor, however, wondered why the project had not fully taken off and urged the people involved, both at the World Bank and the Federal Government to match the tempo of the government’s rural development.
The National Coordinator of RAMP, Mr Lawrence Nwaezike, said the project was jointly funded by the World Bank and the French Development Agency, AFD, to the tune of 60 million dollars while Enugu contributed 12 million dollars. Adding that that the objective of the project was to reduce poverty through making rural roads in the state accessible to enable farmers to evacuate their produce to various markets in and around the state.
