The Federal Ministry of Works and Housing on Saturday lauded the Kebbi State Government for taking ownership of some federal constituency projects in the state, to ensure that they were properly safeguarded and maintained.
Mr Ra’ufu Salawu, Controller in-charge of Housing, Kebbi State, made the commendation at a North West States Stakeholders’ dialogue on the ministry’s Special Projects Unit (SPU) in Birnin Kebbi, organized ahead of a scheduled inspection and monitoring tour of federal constituency projects executed by Senators across the State.
The controller recalled that there was a time when the state Ministry of Water Resources requested to take over some of the projects to be able to serve their communities better, following a meeting between the Governors’ Forum and the minister asking that some of the projects completed in 2017 and 2018, be handed over to some interested state ministries.
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“So, the Kebbi State Ministry of Water Resources came to us and demanded that we handed over some of these projects and we did so,” he said.
Salawu said as the team moves round to inspect the projects, they would interact with beneficiaries, to authoritatively ascertain the extent to which they have enjoyed the projects.
In his speech, the Team Leader of the delegation from Abuja, Alhaji Musa Abdullahi-Dantagago said the reason for the visit was to inspect projects under the SPU of the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing.
“As the Federal Controller is aware, we take inventory of projects executed under SPU and as usual, these projects are targeted at the masses so that the presence of government can be felt at the grassroots.
“Actually, we hope to document the performance of these projects and how they affect the lives of rural dwellers, that is the main essence of this visit. We will take inventory of all the projects that were awarded and executed and those that are ongoing, we hope to provide a better upgrade and system checks of the whole ongoing projects,” he said.
On his part, the representative of the Kebbi State Ministry of Water Resources, Alhaji Bello Garba-Koko appreciate the efforts of the federal housing ministry for the initiative, while explaining that the ministry decided to take-over the programme to enable the communities realize the long term benefits of the projects.
NAN reports that the team inspected projects like; motorized borehole, solar street lighting system, construction of blocks of classrooms, installation of electricity transformers, among others, as well as interacted with beneficiary communities.