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THE GUARDIAN
THE STAR
THE PUNCH
NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
TIMES OF ZAMBIA
THE SUN
DAILY GRAPHICS
THISDAY
MAIL & GUARDIAN
VANGUARD
D/INDEPENDENT
The nation
Daily trust
Ghana Times
THE STAR
THE PUNCH
NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
TIMES OF ZAMBIA
THE SUN
DAILY GRAPHICS
THISDAY
MAIL & GUARDIAN
VANGUARD
D/INDEPENDENT
The nation
Daily trust
Ghana Times
Akinjide and Satellite Towns Development
_________________________________________________________
African Examiner
Friday, Jan 04, 2013
Friday, Jan 04, 2013
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The Federal Capital Territory, which is the seat of power, has
received numerous calls to be accorded greater priority in terms of
governance and administration. Only recently, the chairmen of the
Area Councils of the FCT also called for a special allocation for the
territory by the Federal Government in view of its nation’s capital
status which has continued witnessed massive human traffic from
the 36 States to Abuja.
The original inhabitants of the territory, the Gbagyis, have often
claimed cheated and marginalised and have continued to clamour
for economic and political empowerment.
The infrastructure development of the six Area Councils and
Satellite Towns is one of the cardinal objectives of President
Goodluck Jonathan's Administration for the Territory which he
further backed with his approval of the re-establishment of the
Satellite Towns Development Agency (STDA) in the last quarter of
2011.
It is believed that the provision of infrastructure in the Area Councils
and Satellite Towns will attract people to live in such places and
hence decongest the main city and also lessen the burden on
infrastructure in the Federal Capital City.
The focus of previous Administrations before the incumbent
government had been the development of the Federal Capital City
while ignoring the Area Councils and Satellite Towns where a larger
population of the people, including civil servants, live.
This is however changing with the coming of the President
Goodluck Jonathan Administration and his appointment of Oloye
Olajumoke Akinjide as the Minister of State for FCT to oversee the
Area Councils and Satellite Towns.
Under Akinjide’s supervision, the STDA became operational and
headed by a Director, Alhaji Tukur Ibrahim Bakori. The agency had
commenced construction of roads in the Area Councils and Satellite
Towns, provision of engineering infrastructure and affordable
housing, and also at the fore-front of the Clean and Green Greater
Abuja project initiated by the FCT Minister of State.
Akinjide, who is also called Mama Area Council by the residents and
chairmen of Area Councils, has assured of the commitment of the
Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) under the
leadership of the Honourable Minister of FCT, Senator Bala
Mohammed, to provide adequate infrastructure in the Area Councils
and Satellite Towns.
“The FCTA is partnering with stakeholders, including the Nigerian
Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), to attract private capital
for the development of the area councils and satellite towns,” she
noted.
The STDA has completed the detailed layout for the affordable
housing scheme which is being built in two districts of Wasa in Abuja
Municipal Area Council and Mamusa West in Kuje Area Council.
The affordable housing scheme, which involves the construction of
5,000 housing units, is expected to provide jobs for over 50,000
residents of the territory when completed.
Bakori explained that the housing scheme would reduce the current
strain on the existing housing stock and speed up economic growth
of the area councils. He noted that the scheme was being executed
through a public private partnership initiative with the FCT
Administration providing the required land and primary and
secondary infrastructure while the developer will provide the tertiary
infrastructure.
Road construction and rehabilitation works, according to the STDA
director, have commenced in Karshi, Kuje, Bwari and Gwagwalada,
among others.
Besides the provision of engineering infrastructure in the Area
Councils, Akinjide is giving priority to immunisation of children,
environmental sanitation and agricultural development in the
councils and satellite towns.
Concerned about the poor sanitation in the area councils and
satellite towns, the minister in May 2012 initiated a Community
Sanitation Programme in the six area councils.
Explaining the rationale behind the Community Sanitation
Programme, the Special Assistant to the Minister of State on
Environment, Mr. Ayo Sotinrin, said that the vision of the minister
was to ensure a clean and secure environment for the area councils.
In addition to the Community Sanitation Programme, the minister in
August 2012 also established a Ministerial Committee on Clean and
Green Greater Abuja Initiative with the mandate of building effective
and sustainable enforcement strategies in the cleaning and
greening of area councils and satellite towns. The Ministerial
Committee, which is chaired by the STDA Director, Alhaji Tukur
Bakori, is to recommend appropriate and sustainable waste
management strategies for the area councils and satellite towns.
In line with its terms of reference, the Committee established five
subcommittees: Publicity and Sensitisation, Enforcement, Mop-up
Operation, Parks and Greening, and Monitoring. In addition to
jingles in the different languages, the sensitisation subcommittee
held a town hall meeting in all the six area councils attended by the
chairmen of Area Councils, heads of environment in the area
councils, traditional rulers, religious leaders, district heads, market
women, and National Union of Road Transport Workers, among
others.
With the Clean and Green Greater Abuja Initiative, the incidences of
improper waste disposal with its attendant health consequences
seem to be on the gradual decline. The Area Councils now have
their dump sites and it is no longer fashionable for a council to
package wastes and then move to dump it in another council. The
Committee aided by the STDA deployed pay-loaders, bulldozers
and tippers to the six area councils to evacuate huge refuse
generated by residents of the councils and satellite towns.
With the manner in which the committee has commenced its
operations, there is no doubt that with continued supervision and
funding, the problem of improper waste disposal in the Area
Councils and rural communities will be adequately addressed in the
short time.
In terms of agricultural development, the FCTA has provided N250
million community empowerment agriculture revolving loan for 385
farming communities across the six Area Councils of the FCT. This
is under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Project Support
of the FCT Administration. Details of the revolving loan showed that
N60 million was provided in 2010, N120 million in 2011 and N60
million in 2012.
Akinjide, while on inspection of some farms in Kuchibuyi and Guita
Communities of Bwari Area Council, assured the farmers that the
FCTA would sustain the Community Empowerment Agriculture
Initiative.
“We are supporting the poor and rural communities through
capacity building in modern farming techniques and agric-
businesses to address the issues of poverty, unemployment and
gender equality among the rural populace, thereby improving their
income and quality of life.
“This initiative started with 60 communities across the six Area
Councils in 2010 and by 2011, the initiative was scaled up to 180
communities with FCT UNDAF II supporting 60 communities.
Presently, the scheme is in 236 communities across the six Area
Councils and the remaining communities will be covered before the
end of 2013,” said Akinjide, who supervises the FCT MDGs Project
Support.
The Chairman of the MDGs Farmers Cooperatives, Mr. Marks
Thomas, who commended the minister, said that the scheme had
increased their income level from between N10,000 and N20,000 to
over N100,000.
“This initiative has strengthened farmers in the Area Councils and it
has encouraged many others to take up agro-business because of
improved income level. We are pleading that the scheme should
continue and that the timeline for repayment of the facility should be
extended.
“It is a good initiative because the farmers are being empowered
and they can now afford to train their children in schools. There is a
computer appreciation programme being organised for the children
in the rural communities with aim of keeping them in the area to
reduce rural/urban migration,” Thomas stated.
Farmers in the FCT enjoyed 50 per cent subsidy on fertilizers and
improved seeds of maize and rice under the Growth Enhancement
Support (GES) Scheme. The GES is one of the key initiatives under
the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) aimed at revamping
the agriculture sector, ensuring food security, diversifying the
economy, and enhancing foreign exchange earnings. The FCT
farmers also benefited from the supply of tractors and other agric
implements to farmers at subsidized rate.
The FCTA has provided support to the area councils and satellite
towns towards ensuring that agriculture was practiced as lucrative
commercial enterprise, thereby providing sustainable jobs for the
unemployed women and youths. The Administration has remained
responsive to the calls by farmers and residents of the territory to
intervene in the stabilization of the soaring prices of grains. It
approved the release and sale of buffer stock grains from its
strategic food reserve as part of measures to reduce high costs of
staple food items in the territory. 11,548 bags of maize, 2,196 bags
of guinea corn and 5,070 bags of millet were released sold to
farmers and the public at the subsidized amount.
Also, the FCTA during the year 2012 launched the One Village,
One Product (OVOP) initiative of the Abuja Enterprise Agency AEA.
Rima Village in Abaji Area Council was the first beneficiary of the
scheme with the commissioning of a mini shea-butter processing
cluster by the FCT Minister of State.
Akinjide had urged the people to take advantage of the project to
transform the landscape of the village, expressing optimism that it
would attract tremendous economic activities and investments to the
village.
She noted that the project was geared towards empowerment of the
rural women by way of reducing the processing period of the shea-
butter by 70 per cent.
“The initiative is aimed at building a society devoid of gender
discrimination and unequal access to political, social and economic
wealth creation opportunities. Gender mainstreaming,
empowerment, equality and equity are among the priority areas in
the transformation agenda.
“Women from three communities have been empowered through
this project. They were organized into cooperatives to enable then
access financing to help with the expansion of their businesses. In
Kwali, a State-wide micro-finance bank is being established. A high
percentage of its financing will be targeted at women,” the minister
disclosed.
received numerous calls to be accorded greater priority in terms of
governance and administration. Only recently, the chairmen of the
Area Councils of the FCT also called for a special allocation for the
territory by the Federal Government in view of its nation’s capital
status which has continued witnessed massive human traffic from
the 36 States to Abuja.
The original inhabitants of the territory, the Gbagyis, have often
claimed cheated and marginalised and have continued to clamour
for economic and political empowerment.
The infrastructure development of the six Area Councils and
Satellite Towns is one of the cardinal objectives of President
Goodluck Jonathan's Administration for the Territory which he
further backed with his approval of the re-establishment of the
Satellite Towns Development Agency (STDA) in the last quarter of
2011.
It is believed that the provision of infrastructure in the Area Councils
and Satellite Towns will attract people to live in such places and
hence decongest the main city and also lessen the burden on
infrastructure in the Federal Capital City.
The focus of previous Administrations before the incumbent
government had been the development of the Federal Capital City
while ignoring the Area Councils and Satellite Towns where a larger
population of the people, including civil servants, live.
This is however changing with the coming of the President
Goodluck Jonathan Administration and his appointment of Oloye
Olajumoke Akinjide as the Minister of State for FCT to oversee the
Area Councils and Satellite Towns.
Under Akinjide’s supervision, the STDA became operational and
headed by a Director, Alhaji Tukur Ibrahim Bakori. The agency had
commenced construction of roads in the Area Councils and Satellite
Towns, provision of engineering infrastructure and affordable
housing, and also at the fore-front of the Clean and Green Greater
Abuja project initiated by the FCT Minister of State.
Akinjide, who is also called Mama Area Council by the residents and
chairmen of Area Councils, has assured of the commitment of the
Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) under the
leadership of the Honourable Minister of FCT, Senator Bala
Mohammed, to provide adequate infrastructure in the Area Councils
and Satellite Towns.
“The FCTA is partnering with stakeholders, including the Nigerian
Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), to attract private capital
for the development of the area councils and satellite towns,” she
noted.
The STDA has completed the detailed layout for the affordable
housing scheme which is being built in two districts of Wasa in Abuja
Municipal Area Council and Mamusa West in Kuje Area Council.
The affordable housing scheme, which involves the construction of
5,000 housing units, is expected to provide jobs for over 50,000
residents of the territory when completed.
Bakori explained that the housing scheme would reduce the current
strain on the existing housing stock and speed up economic growth
of the area councils. He noted that the scheme was being executed
through a public private partnership initiative with the FCT
Administration providing the required land and primary and
secondary infrastructure while the developer will provide the tertiary
infrastructure.
Road construction and rehabilitation works, according to the STDA
director, have commenced in Karshi, Kuje, Bwari and Gwagwalada,
among others.
Besides the provision of engineering infrastructure in the Area
Councils, Akinjide is giving priority to immunisation of children,
environmental sanitation and agricultural development in the
councils and satellite towns.
Concerned about the poor sanitation in the area councils and
satellite towns, the minister in May 2012 initiated a Community
Sanitation Programme in the six area councils.
Explaining the rationale behind the Community Sanitation
Programme, the Special Assistant to the Minister of State on
Environment, Mr. Ayo Sotinrin, said that the vision of the minister
was to ensure a clean and secure environment for the area councils.
In addition to the Community Sanitation Programme, the minister in
August 2012 also established a Ministerial Committee on Clean and
Green Greater Abuja Initiative with the mandate of building effective
and sustainable enforcement strategies in the cleaning and
greening of area councils and satellite towns. The Ministerial
Committee, which is chaired by the STDA Director, Alhaji Tukur
Bakori, is to recommend appropriate and sustainable waste
management strategies for the area councils and satellite towns.
In line with its terms of reference, the Committee established five
subcommittees: Publicity and Sensitisation, Enforcement, Mop-up
Operation, Parks and Greening, and Monitoring. In addition to
jingles in the different languages, the sensitisation subcommittee
held a town hall meeting in all the six area councils attended by the
chairmen of Area Councils, heads of environment in the area
councils, traditional rulers, religious leaders, district heads, market
women, and National Union of Road Transport Workers, among
others.
With the Clean and Green Greater Abuja Initiative, the incidences of
improper waste disposal with its attendant health consequences
seem to be on the gradual decline. The Area Councils now have
their dump sites and it is no longer fashionable for a council to
package wastes and then move to dump it in another council. The
Committee aided by the STDA deployed pay-loaders, bulldozers
and tippers to the six area councils to evacuate huge refuse
generated by residents of the councils and satellite towns.
With the manner in which the committee has commenced its
operations, there is no doubt that with continued supervision and
funding, the problem of improper waste disposal in the Area
Councils and rural communities will be adequately addressed in the
short time.
In terms of agricultural development, the FCTA has provided N250
million community empowerment agriculture revolving loan for 385
farming communities across the six Area Councils of the FCT. This
is under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Project Support
of the FCT Administration. Details of the revolving loan showed that
N60 million was provided in 2010, N120 million in 2011 and N60
million in 2012.
Akinjide, while on inspection of some farms in Kuchibuyi and Guita
Communities of Bwari Area Council, assured the farmers that the
FCTA would sustain the Community Empowerment Agriculture
Initiative.
“We are supporting the poor and rural communities through
capacity building in modern farming techniques and agric-
businesses to address the issues of poverty, unemployment and
gender equality among the rural populace, thereby improving their
income and quality of life.
“This initiative started with 60 communities across the six Area
Councils in 2010 and by 2011, the initiative was scaled up to 180
communities with FCT UNDAF II supporting 60 communities.
Presently, the scheme is in 236 communities across the six Area
Councils and the remaining communities will be covered before the
end of 2013,” said Akinjide, who supervises the FCT MDGs Project
Support.
The Chairman of the MDGs Farmers Cooperatives, Mr. Marks
Thomas, who commended the minister, said that the scheme had
increased their income level from between N10,000 and N20,000 to
over N100,000.
“This initiative has strengthened farmers in the Area Councils and it
has encouraged many others to take up agro-business because of
improved income level. We are pleading that the scheme should
continue and that the timeline for repayment of the facility should be
extended.
“It is a good initiative because the farmers are being empowered
and they can now afford to train their children in schools. There is a
computer appreciation programme being organised for the children
in the rural communities with aim of keeping them in the area to
reduce rural/urban migration,” Thomas stated.
Farmers in the FCT enjoyed 50 per cent subsidy on fertilizers and
improved seeds of maize and rice under the Growth Enhancement
Support (GES) Scheme. The GES is one of the key initiatives under
the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) aimed at revamping
the agriculture sector, ensuring food security, diversifying the
economy, and enhancing foreign exchange earnings. The FCT
farmers also benefited from the supply of tractors and other agric
implements to farmers at subsidized rate.
The FCTA has provided support to the area councils and satellite
towns towards ensuring that agriculture was practiced as lucrative
commercial enterprise, thereby providing sustainable jobs for the
unemployed women and youths. The Administration has remained
responsive to the calls by farmers and residents of the territory to
intervene in the stabilization of the soaring prices of grains. It
approved the release and sale of buffer stock grains from its
strategic food reserve as part of measures to reduce high costs of
staple food items in the territory. 11,548 bags of maize, 2,196 bags
of guinea corn and 5,070 bags of millet were released sold to
farmers and the public at the subsidized amount.
Also, the FCTA during the year 2012 launched the One Village,
One Product (OVOP) initiative of the Abuja Enterprise Agency AEA.
Rima Village in Abaji Area Council was the first beneficiary of the
scheme with the commissioning of a mini shea-butter processing
cluster by the FCT Minister of State.
Akinjide had urged the people to take advantage of the project to
transform the landscape of the village, expressing optimism that it
would attract tremendous economic activities and investments to the
village.
She noted that the project was geared towards empowerment of the
rural women by way of reducing the processing period of the shea-
butter by 70 per cent.
“The initiative is aimed at building a society devoid of gender
discrimination and unequal access to political, social and economic
wealth creation opportunities. Gender mainstreaming,
empowerment, equality and equity are among the priority areas in
the transformation agenda.
“Women from three communities have been empowered through
this project. They were organized into cooperatives to enable then
access financing to help with the expansion of their businesses. In
Kwali, a State-wide micro-finance bank is being established. A high
percentage of its financing will be targeted at women,” the minister
disclosed.
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