By Raymond Ozoji Awka
The Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning in Anambra state, Chiamaka Helen Nnake, says the Governor, Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, is ensuring that every part of the state is accessible irrespective of how interior or remote such places are.
Nnake who stated this during an exclusive interview with our correspondent in her office at the secretariat complex Awka, explained that Governor Soludo met very terrible roads in Anambra state when he came in as governor.
She said the governor has toured the communities and found out that some communities have not had a connecting road to their domains since the state was created and such communities he promised to provide roads as evident in the many road projects the governor has flagged off for construction in recent times.
The Commissioner who made a recap of the 2022 Revised Budget, said the N170 Billion budget size, had 64% capital expenditures and 36% recurrent expenditures respectively. She said over 50% of the capital was allocated to road construction because roads were basic infrastructures needed to drive investments.
Nnake stressed that Soludo is making frantic efforts to ensure that Anambra state is attractive enough to woo investors into the state and that apart from the deplorable conditions of roads, she said the present state government was greeted with insecurity when it came on board.
Nnake pointed out that when the present administration came in, some local government areas were inaccessible due to security breaches but she expressed happiness that at the moment, people moved around freely as the security situation is being tackled head-on.
The Commissioner who shed more light on the efforts of government on road construction, said communities have been charged to ensure that contractors handling road projects in their areas were on site and executing the projects according to specifications as such were veritable feedback mechanism for the state government to determine progress on road contracts awarded.
The Commissioner also disclosed that in the current administration, roads were being designed, soil analysis carried out to determine composition of the soil and that contractors would also sign an agreement paper that roads constructed by their companies will have 20 years guarantee prior to project execution.
Nnake who disclosed that most of the contractors handling the road projects in Anambra state were foreign contractors with credibility in Nigeria, noted that government was making efforts to ensure that every part of the state is motorable especially as the festive season sets in.
She added that while the contractors were handling major road projects across the state, the Anambra State Road Maintenance Agency was equally carrying out palliatives on roads to ensure that the agenda of free traffic flow was realised in the state this Christmas season and henceforth.