The Kogi State Community and Social Development Agency (KOCSDA) has commenced execution of 12 micro projects in six communities across the state.
The General Manager of the agency, Mallam Momoh Dauda made this known at the opening of a two-day training organised by the Agency for 72 Community Project Management Committee (CPMC) members on Tuesday in Lokoja.
Momoh congratulated the six communities on the approval of their Community Driven Development (CDD) micro saying that the training was organised for them to learn skills for implementation of the projects.
He applauded the support of the State Government to the project. He informed participants that as demonstration of this support, the State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello recently approved the release of 200million as the state Government contribution for the 2018 and 2019. He advised communities to reciprocate government’s commitments by maintaining the micro-projects when completed to the greater good of the communities.
The training was put together by the Agency to train the CPMC members on elementary knowledge of project management and basic book keeping principles to ensure the community project are implemented in line with the Community Development Plan.
The General Manager, represented by the Acting Finance and Administration Manager Mrs. Ebunola Berida, the partnership between the Federal Government, State Government and the World Bank in Kogi state in the area of rural development has drawn over 3.2billion Naira since its inception.
According to him, this money was expended on critical sectors in rural communities with a bid to reducing the poverty situation in rural communities in a sustainable manner using the Community Driven Development (CDD) approach.
Momoh announced that CSDA will execute 40 community micro projects before end of June this year under the World Bank Community and Social Development Project (CSDP).
He said that the micro projects will cut across social and economic strata and included construction of classroom blocks, market stalls, community town halls, primary health centres and water projects among others.
“Each of the benefiting communities will have N10 million for two micro projects. So, if we are going to support 40 communities that is about N400 million for projects intervention alone,” he said.
He hinted that N60 million would be disbursed for implementation of the 12 micro projects in the six communities and they were expected to be completed within three months.
Also speaking, Mr Ayo Oludare, Acting Monitoring and Evaluation Manager in the agency said, “We feel strongly that their (CPMC members) capacity needs to be developed so that they will be able to implement the projects using the best practices.”
On monitoring of the projects, Oludare said, “At the state Agency level, we have the Monitoring and Evaluation Unit that goes to communities at different times.
“We monitor the projects and look at the milestones that are set for them and also track the progress of the project.
The benefiting communities include Aya in Ibaji local government for water and solar streetlight; Oganego in Olamaboro LG for classroom block and clinic; Ganaja in Ajaokuta LG, block of classrooms and science laboratory.
Others are Iluhaga, Ijumu LG, school and clinic; Ukpogoro, Okene LG, Skills Acquisition Centre and town hall; Ahogede, Okene LG, motorised Borehole and public toilet.
The Community and Social Development Project (CSDP) is a Community Driven Development (CDD) intervention established by the federal government and World Bank in collaboration with state governments to effectively target social and environmental infrastructure at the community levels as well as improved LGA’s responsibility to service delivery.
KGCSDA which was established in March 2009 as an implementation agency, has the mandate of improving the socioeconomic condition of the population at the grassroots based on a demand-driven approach to project selection.
