AKWA IBOM RAAMP EXCELS AT JOINT WORLD BANK, AFD MISSION
The Akwa Ibom State Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project, AKS-RAAMP has been given a pat on the back and adjudged one of the best among the 19 participating states in the project, following the quality and speedy progress of work along its demonstration rural road.
The Task Team Leader of the World Bank, Engr. Olatunji Ahmed gave the applause recently at the seventh joint World Bank and French Development Agency, AFD implementation support mission of RAAMP held at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja.
“When we visited Akwa Ibom State for the pre-mission last month, we saw the civil works progressing on schedule along the demonstration road and most likely to be finished before completion time. Apart from that, we also saw that the quality of job was excellent. Those are the two areas that have distinguished Akwa Ibom State from other states. Things are going on on schedule and in the right quality. That’s a good one and very much commendable.”
It could be recalled that His Excellency, the State Governor, Pastor Umo Bassey Eno had flagged-off the 11-kilometer Owotuta – Nung Oku Ekere – Afaha Udo Eyop – Edeobom – Utuat market junction demonstration rural road in Ibesikpo Asutan and Nsit Ibom Local Government Areas last year for construction and delivery by China Roads and Bridges Corporation, CRBC within 18 months.
Ahmed who also hailed the strides recorded by Katsina RAAMP, being the first state to award civil works contract and completing same four months before the expected competition date, called on other participating states to queue behind Akwa Ibom and Katsina for overall best results.
In his remarks, the National Coordinator of RAAMP, Engr. Aminu Mohammed described the project as an appropriate and very effective means of realising food sufficiency and security across the country, pointing out that most urban centers derive their supply of food from farms, which are located at the rural communities.
His words: “the primary objective of RAAMP is to improve rural roads and trading infrastructure to boost food production. Therefore the successful implementation of this project could go a long way towards guaranteeing food sufficiency and security across the country,” as he sued for concerted efforts by all stakeholders to ensure an all-round success of the project.
Aminu noted that the mission was to evaluate the current implementation status, milestones as well as challenges faced by the RAAMP states and announced that arrangements had reached an advanced stage for the commencement of civil works on agro-logistics centers (ALCs), latest by September, 2024 with 23 major contracts that would be awarded across the states.
ALCs refer to market hubs that have been prioritised for transformation into ultra-modern standards at various locations across the country , notably in rural communities, to empower and enhance the livelihoods of the people.
Also speaking, the Task Team Leader of the World Bank, Mr. Rakeesh Tripathi hinted that a scale-up project was being mooted to further advance the accomplishments of RAAMP but emphasized that only states which must have established and operationalised the Rural Access Road Agency (RARA) and State Road Fund (SRF) in addition to a good standing with regards to counterpart funds would be eligible to access the scale-up funds, adding that all the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory were encouraged to embrace the scale-up project.
On her part, the Task Team Leader of AFD, Ms Sally Ibrahim advised all the participants to take advantage of the array of experts in attendance at the mission to access the needed support and tackle every challenge that must have been experienced in the course of the project implementation for best results.
Highpoints of the exercise was the presentation by the State Project Coordinator of Akwa Ibom RAAMP, Pastor Gideon Akpan on the implementation status of AKS-RAAMP, the milestones achieved, challenges and the way forward. The event featured a question and answer session as well as comments and observations, among other inputs by the stakeholders. Other project coordinators states also made their presentations respectively.
Present at the mission were the Federal Project Management Unit, FPMU of RAAMP; Consultants from the World Bank and the State Project Implementation Units, SPIUs from all the 19 RAAMP states across the country.
