THE administration of Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State has approved the release of the sum of N400, 238,237 .00 as its counterpart fund payment to the state’s Rural Access and Mobility Project (RAMP II) to enable the project continue effectively in the state.
The project is under the joint sponsorship of the World Bank and French Development Agency in collaboration with the Federal and Enugu State Governments, established to improve the ease of transportation and bring sustained access to the rural population through rehabilitation and maintenance of key rural roads in selected states in the country.
Briefing newsmen after the meeting of the State Executive Council (EXCO), the State Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Engr. Greg Nnaji, stated that Enugu State has taken its pride of place as one of the states where RAMP programme is being implemented effectively.
Engr. Nnaji disclosed that nine rural roads totaling 115.36km were being executed in the first phase of the Enugu RAMP II, adding that “the project is equally preparing the procurement activities associated with selection, design, supervision and construction of the second phase of roads totaling about 400km”.
He noted that the above was in addition to the commencement of the procurement activities for the selection and maintenance of 49.8km of rural roads under the Community Based Road Maintenance and Annual Mechanized Maintenance.
The works Commissioner explained that Enugu RAMP II has an approved budget of N7.6 billion from the World Bank for its 2018 activities.
He stated that the Enugu State government’s estimated counterpart funds to the project based on the World Bank budget was N417,730, 000.00. He further explained that the amount came down to N400,238,237.00 “because the state government had within 2017 released to the project part payment of the arrears of its 2010-2017 incentives (Vanguard).
