…reiterates plan to grow Enugu economy
…promises to eradicate poverty
The Governor of Enugu State, Dr Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, Friday inaugurated the Enugu State, Economic Planning Commission.
In a meeting with members of the committee and newsmen at the Enugu State Government House, the governor disclosed that the Enugu State Economic Planning Commission is a creation of the law designed to create a platform for the exchange of ideas and sharing of knowledge.
He said the commission will forge a new partnership with the state government for the growth of the Enugu State economy and the benefit of the people.
Mbah also reminded the committee of his plans to grow the state’s GDP to 30 billion dollars, eradicate poverty, provide water and ensure a clean and livable Enugu environment
In his words:
” As you would all recollect, during our campaign, we expressed a massive vision whereby we told the people of Enugu State of our commitment to achieve an economy that is going to be one of the top three in the country by growing the economy of the state from where we are today to 30 billion dollars.
”We are going to eradicate poverty. That means that we are going to have zero percent rate in our poverty headcount index. Now we plan to achieve that through making Enugu State a premiere destination for investment and also making sure that we drive government down to the people because we know that the concentration of poverty is largely within our rural dwellers and you people are the closest to the rural dwellers.
“It is incumbent on us if we must eradicate poverty to partner with you the local government chairmen which is why we have spent no time in setting up this economic planning commission.
“The idea is for us to work with you in partnership so we can execute the projects we have proposed. We have ambitious programmes in the areas of infrastructure, education, health care, making sure that our people have access to electricity for those communities that are yet to.
“In the area of water we want to ensure that while we are here thinking of how we can get water in the metropolis in the next 142 or 143 days left, we also want you to be concerned about how you can ensure that rural dwellers have access to water.
“Also in the area of sanitation, it is not acceptable that in the 21st century, we still have communities that still practice open defecation, that must end. That must end through your efforts and commitment. We are interested in making sure that most of our rural dwellers are not more than five minutes distance from running and potable water.
“If you are going to bring an end to public defecation then you must provide toilets in the rural community so that our people can have where to go to ease themselves.
“In the area of roads, recall also that we promised to do a minimum of 10, 000 kilometers of roads in the next 8 years.
“The idea of having a platform such as the economic planning committee is to forge a partnership where we can identify projects that we can execute and pull funds together and ensure that we execute such project.”
