‘Social Devt Project spends N14bn in Nigeria’

The Community and Social Development Project (CSDP) has so far spent N14 billion on about 14,000 rural projects across 30 states in Nigeria, its national coordinator, Abdulkareem Obaje has disclosed.

Speaking in Minna, Niger State, yesterday at the opening of the 2018 Second Quarter Review meeting of the organization, he said the amount represented 65 percent of the $415m voted for execution of projects in Nigeria by the World Bank.

“These resources have been invested in building and rehabilitating about 14,000 micro projects in social and natural resources infrastructure management sectors of the rural economy in all the benefiting communities and across various participating states,” he explained.

He said CSDP, which is a World Bank programme, was intervening in the poorest of local government areas in the affected states.

He said activities of the CSDP in Nigeria were being stalled by insecurity.

Niger State Governor Abubakar Sani Bello, who declared the meeting opened, said the CSDP had supported the state in the areas of health, water transport and education.

He said the interventions had further enhanced the administration’s ability to provide basic services to the people.

Bello, represented by the Commissioner for Agriculture, Haruna Dukku, said the state would continue to live up to its responsibilities to take the opportunities provided by the World Bank-assisted projects and other development partners.