Governor Nwifuru (file photo)
‘Ebonyi has been doing medium expenditure framework successfully in line with the requirements of the fiscal responsibility laws’
By Nweze Anaga,
Abakaliki
Ebonyi State government has solicited for support and cooperation of World Bank to speed up its development agenda.
Governor Francis Ogbonna Nwifuru made the appeal at a meeting with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) State-to-State Team in his office.
The governor said that though the state has secured a lot of funds through the support of the State-to-state programmes, more were required to be done in that direction.
“Let me first thank the leader and members of the team. When we started this issue of State Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS), we were able to achieve a lot through our commitment and your support. We are happy because of what we were able to get; but I urge you to give us more support. Any area we are behind, involve our people because we are still losing a lot in the implementation of World Bank projects,” he said.
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The governor also acknowledged what he described as modest efforts of the previous administration in infrastructure and human capital development and assured that he would always work with development partners to improve on the feat.
Besides, the leader of the team, Dr. Joe Abah, said that they were in the governor’s office to brief him on the activities of the State-to-State programme.
He said that Ebonyi had made tremendous progress in public financing, management and transparency.
“Since 2020, we have focused on support to Internally Generated Revenue, participation of citizens in governance and how to mitigate conflict in the state.
“Ebonyi has been doing medium expenditure framework successfully in line with the requirements of the fiscal responsibility laws. We have also helped the state to develop medium term sector strategy in three key sectors of education, health as well as water and sanitation and they have been using the strategy to do budgeting.
“The governor when he was Speaker of the State Assembly played a critical role by ensuring that all relevant laws that empowered the state to benefit were passed.”
Abah however advised the Ebonyi State government to set up a transformation unit that will offer technical support for the implementation of the governor’s manifesto.
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