FG, LABOUR MEET TODAY OVER ELECTRICITY, FUEL PRICE
The Minister of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, Dr. George Akume, yesterday said the federal government had concluded plans to distribute 2,000 buses to cooperative societies across the country to cushion the effects of transportation on Nigerians, especially those living in rural areas. Akume said in Abuja at
an interactive meeting with cooperative societies in Nigeria tagged the ‘Cooperative Asset Scheme’ that the initiative was a collaboration between his ministry and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and other agencies in the government and that the ministry took the decision to pass through the co-operative bodies to ensure the effective implementation of the project, rather than giving out loans to individuals, which might delay quick execution of the project.
“Basically, we recognise the fact that when you give out loans to individuals, sometimes you have the difficulty of recovery, when cooperative is involved it becomes easier to manage the facility. The whole essence of the initiative is to ensure that our rural force have access to transportation facility, now that there is a slight adjustment of the price of fuel.
“We do recognise that some transport business men could decide to take advantage of fuel increase over Nigerians. So, when this is implemented, we belief the initiative will do quite a lot to stabilize the prices for the benefits of the people,” Akume said.
Speaking earlier, the Project Coordinator, Cooperative Asset Scheme, Mr Olakunle Jeff, said the federal government was giving the buses to the cooperative societies at good prices for onward distribution to interested members of the society.