By Sylvanus Viashima, Jalingo
The Taraba State Community and Social Development Agency (CSDA) has executed 318 micro projects in 159 communities across Taraba State.
The public relations officer of the Agency Mrs Freda Allen who disclose this to journalists while on a tour of the projects said that the projects are at 90% completion and will be handed over to the respective communities by December.
She said that the agency was able to carryout such massive projects due to the enabling environment and funding provided by the state government under Governor Agbu Kefas.
“The Taraba State Community and Social Development Agency(CSDA) is setting the pace under the Community Action For Resilience and Economic Stimulus (TR-CARES), in infrastructural interventions across rural communities in the six (16) Local Government Areas of the State.
“The CSDA launched yet another phase of micro projects intervention in the State in July 2024, with sectors of intervention which include water, health, education, erosion and flood control. This phase of intervention under the NG-CARES programme comprises the drilling and installation of hand pump boreholes, drilling/rehabilitation of solar powered boreholes, perimeter fencing of public primary and secondary schools, construction and equipping of health posts with one time supply of drugs, as well as construction of drainages and various sizes of box culverts to control erosion and flood.
“318 micro projects are executed, and will be ready for take-over by the communities in December 2024, in this round intervention by the Taraba CSDA, with one hundred and fifty-nine (159) communities as direct beneficiaries. The project is at 90% level of completion, while the remaining 10% will be ready in December.
“The Governor Agbu Kefas’ administration provided complete funding for the project, based on the Programme for Result guidelines by the World Bank for the NG-CARES programme, which implies that the State will be reimbursed after a verification exercise by the World Bank.
Hassan Audu, an aged resident of Bekinda community in Wukari Local Government Area of Taraba State who willingly donated his land for a health post project said, the construction of the health facility in his community will ease access to healthcare services by residents.
Audu said the State Governor Agbu Kefas has done well in remembering rural communities, through the provision of basic infrastructure through the Taraba CSDA.
In the same light, students of Marmara Girls Secondary School in Wukari Local Government Area were elated with the sense of security, their newly constructed perimeter fence has provided them.
Many of the students told the Agency’s Public Relations Officer that they now feel more comfortable studying in their classrooms, especially during night preps.
They are also grateful to Taraba State Governor Agbu Kefas for changing the narrative of their porous school borders, by empowering the Taraba CSDA to transform the security issues they had due to the lack of a perimeter fence.
