Gov. Ikpeazu Promises To Link Abia State To The Sea Via Aba Port

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has assured Abians that he will continue working to make Aba and by extension the whole Abia state better putting in place good infrastructures.


This include the ones he has already given Abians out of total of 65 construction works, 27 have been dully commissioned.

This is in addition to having executed a massive de-silting of drainages, gutters and storm waterways in Aba. He raised the bar in quality and innovation in road construction by introducing rigid pavement technology also known as cement technology into the lexicon of road construction in Abia.

This is because roads constructed with this technology have a sustainability guarantee
of 10 to 20 years. The city of Aba has also been a major focus of the Ikpeazu administration in the last one year.

This has involved a total repositioning that
encompassed infrastructural renewal, trade and investment, rebranding and capacity
building. To achieve this, he created the Aba Urban Renewal Authority and the body has been the anchor unit for the drive towards the infrastructural renewal of the city. This broad approach in dealing with the issues of Aba has given birth to many tactical actions directed towards developing the latent ingenuity and creativity for which Aba is celebrated. The Ikpeazu administration has also paid attention to the agric sector.

Early in the administration, the government entered into partnership with the Songhai Farms in Porto Novo, Republic of Benin, for the training of 40 youths annually on a train-the-trainer initiative in the entire agricultural value-chain. The state later launched The Return to Farming and Women in Fish Farming Initiative, which is aimed at empowering the youths and women by setting up farming cooperatives which will help drive key government policy as regards agriculture. The government, through the initiative, would make land, finance and training accessible for farmers.

The administration followed this
up by sourcing N1 billion Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) loan for agricultural revolution. The entire vision is to explore the agric-economy as a support base for the state economy.

There has been a concerted effort towards revitalization of moribund industries. This
effort has taken the centre stage in the activities of the governor. He started by embarking on an inspection tour of Golden
Guinea Breweries Industry, Umuahia to extract a commitment and an assurance from the core investor that the company will come upstream last May.

Government and the investors are collaborating to achieve this time goal. The governor later repeated the same performance at the International Glass Industries, Aba, when he personally visited the site for on the spot assessment of the progress of work by the new management that is working to revamp the moribund industry.

Today, the Aba industry has about 400 staff and has commenced partial manufacturing of bottles for pharmaceutical companies.

In the last one year, Ikpeazu has also paid attention to rural infrastructural development.

One of the strategies adopted in this regard is the establishment of the Abia State Rural Infrastructure Development Initiative (ASTRIDE). This initiative is aimed at providing at least one project in each of the 184 INEC wards in the 17 local government areas of the state.

The idea is close the gap of infrastructural development in the rural areas. Many rural roads are being opened up for easy access to the city.

th the establishment of the Abia State Markets Development Committee, the governor has conducted a successful review of the status of the markets.

Through the Integrated Payroll Verification System (IPVS), he conducted several staff auditing exercises to ascertain the actual strength of the workforce. The state has also recorded huge success in the area of government public finance restructuring.

Through this effort, it has harmonized taxes and levies, eradicated touts and illegal agents in the revenue drive and blocked all leakages and drain pipes through which government finances were being siphoned. Indeed, Ikpeazu is ready to give account of himself.

On the Abia State Seaport

The governor has initiated efforts to link Aba to the sea through the development of the Obuaku City Port.

The governor said groundwork has been done on Obuako port, and work will soon begin. This will give a great boost to Aba
as the commercial hub of the South East and South South.

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