Nkechinyere Ewa-Okpara
The government of Ebonyi State has assured that the USAID State2State Activity reforms will be sustained beyond 2025 when the project will close out in the state.
Grace Umezuruike, an academic professor and secretary to the Ebonyi State government, gave the assurance Friday during the State Transformation Committee (STC) quarterly review meeting held in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital.
Correspondent reports that the Nigeria State Accountability, Transparency, and Effectiveness (State2State) Activity supports strengthened governance structures in some states in Nigeria including Ebonyi to improve their ability to plan and budget, raise revenues, increase civil society participation, and oversee service delivery in the health; education; and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) sectors.
Umezuruike, represented by Onu Nweze, a permanent secretary office of the secretary to state government, noted that the State2State reforms have impacted positively on the state, and the governor, being progressive, can’t let such a human-oriented program die in the state.
“Right from time, the government of Governor Francis Nwifuru has been supportive of the State2State project. If there is any developmental partner he had ever given special attention to it is this USAID State2State Activity. Their agenda is his people’s charter of needs.
“This is Cardinal to him because it is a grassroots programme, and there is no way he will not support it because it has a bearing on the citizens.
“So, I assure USAID that the Ebonyi State government will support the State2State Activity because it has an impact on the indigenes of the state. It is a progressive Activity, and the Governor is a progressive man, so he supports it.”
Addressing the committee members, Sam Onyia USAID State2State team lead Ebonyi Field Office represented by Nneka Egbuna State2State communication specialists in a remark explained that the STC is a group responsible for sustaining State2State reforms in Ebonyi in the area of public finance management, public procurement, gender and social inclusion, peace and conflict resolution among others.
Onyia charged the STC to ensure that the state government sustain the Activity of State2State beyond 2025 when the project will close out in Ebonyi.
“State Transformation Committee (STC) is an important organ that is responsible for sustaining State2State project reforms.
“The reform sustainability plan was developed to ensure that the goals are achieved.
“State2State is supporting Ebonyi to have reform in public financial management, public procurement, audit reform, internally generated revenue, debt management, open government partnership, citizens and community engagement and participation, and the STC is expected to work towards ensuring that the reforms are sustained in Ebonyi even after State2State project to have transformational development in the state”.
Meanwhile, members of the committee pledged to work harder to sustain the reforms even outside USAID State2State support.