The Kebbi State Government has identified the Community and Social Development Project (CSDP), initiated by the Federal Government with support from the World Bank, as one of the best projects in the state.
The Secretary to the Kebbi State Government (SSG), Alhaji Babale Yauri, stated this when receiving the National Coordinator of CSDP, Dr Abdulkarim Obaje, in Birnin Kebbi
Obaje was represented by Mr Niyi Oduneye, the Head Monitoring and Information Management, Federal Project Support Unit, on Thursday in Kebbi State sapital.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the officials of CSDP were in Kebbi for assessment and to get feedback on the impact of CSDP from the benefiting rural communities.
The SSG said that the government of Kebbi considered the CSDP as one of the best because it touches the lives of the rural populists.
Yauri, who stated that Kebbi was a rural state, added that any project that focused on the lives of rural people was a project that was dear to the state government.
“If you go round the state you will find a lot of sign boards indicating different CSDP projects across the state.
“In fact, the CSDP project has boosted the morale of an ordinary man in Kebbi who now believes that he can contribute to the development of his locality in particular and state in general.
“CSDC is one of the projects that the government of Gov. Abubakar Bagudu of Kebbi State consider as one of the best projects initiated by the Federal Government and in fact it has been completely supported by the governor,” he said.
The SSG noted the 10 per cent that was being contributed by the community was very dear to them and it made them protect the project to ensure its sustainability.
“Unlike other projects that are completely developed and financed by the Federal, State or Local Government, CSDP was able to mobilise the rural populist and measure their capacity in shouldering and in the leadership of a project.
“And, interestingly, CSDP has not degelect the traditional institution completely. That is why it is able to succeed because most members of our traditional institutions, retired civil servants and ex-military officers were enlightened and integrated into the initiative,” he said.
Yauri said that in the concept of Gov. Bagudu administration, it was not the elite or the leadership that determined what the people wanted, rather it was the people who decided what kind of projects they needed.
He disclosed that a department was created to sensitise and mobilise people on the benefits of CSDP projects.
According to him, if a community rejects a project no matter how good it is it will not succeed.
Earlier, representative of the national coordinator of CSDP, Mr Niyi Oduneye, said the project had recorded enormous success in hard to reach communities Kebbi since its inception in 2009.
He explained that the mandate of CSDP was to ensure provision of social infrastructure facilities in communities, adding that this approach had been community driven development.
“We do not only build infrastructure but we equally build human resources. We engaged in training and retraining of our Community Project Management Committee, who anchored the implementation of our micro projects and other projects in the field,” he said.
Also, Alhaji Yakubu Yeldu, the General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of Kebbi CSDP, said CSDP had spent over N2 billion to finance over 669 micro projects in remote communities in 20 Local Government Areas in the state over the last 10 years.
“As we speak all the over 669 micro projects have been completed and people are benefiting from all of them. We don’t have a single abandon projects
“Right now in our record we have over 300 applications for new community projects and not only that we received phone calls every day,” Yeldu said.
He revealed that demands for provision of portal water constituted almost 80 per cent in every micro projects application from most communities in the state.
NAN reports that the CSDP projects assessment and documentary team which began the exercise in Gwandu Local Government of the state, visited Kalgo Youth Skills Acquisition Centre upgraded and equipped by CSDP in 2014.
Coordinator of the centre Zulkiflu Mohammed disclosed that the centre which was affiliated with the Usman Danfodio University Sokoto, graduated over 1000 people on different skills in the last 10 years.
Similarly, the team also visited a market where the CSDP rehabilitated four number of open Market stalls and built a Kulbate to control erosion at Lani Maikasuwa community, in Koko Local Government area of state.
The District Head of the Community, Alhaji Ibrahim Salihu thanked the national and state leadership of CSDP for their intervention which had a far reaching impact on the lives of the people of the community. (NAN)
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