Kaduna State government has said it will take over the Japan-assisted N283 million Pampaida Millennium Village Project in Ikara Local Government Area, in December this year.
Finance and administrative manager of the project, Elisha Tanuna, who spoke on behalf of the management, told journalists yesterday in Kaduna that Governor Nasir el Rufai has visited the project and was impressed with how such an amount could be managed to transform the infrastructure of a poor rural community.
Tanuna explained that the project has raised about 30,000 villagers from crippling poverty by improving their wellbeing.
He said the Pampaida project has dramatically showed that a community of about 30,000 persons, which had no school, primary health care and good maternal mortality rate, among others, could actually be transformed into a modern community where all these services could be made available.
Tanuna said: “When in May 2006, Professor Jeffrey Sachsin, Director, Earth Institute, Columbia University, who is also special adviser to the United Nations on Millennium Development Goals, MDGs, and the late Governor of Kaduna State, Patrick Yakowa, flagged off the project, many people were not sure if what was promised would be achieved.
“Today, we are happy to say that with the financial assistance of Japanese government, which donated about $1.28 million, we have been able to show it is possible to actually make MDG model villages in which the poorest of communities live, to lift themselves out of poverty, improve their hygiene and sanitation, get educated and meet MDGs’ targets when supported with $100 per capita over a period of five years.
“We will be handing over the Pampaida MVP to Kaduna State government to be managed by Ikara Local Government Council in December to serve as a model to be used in transforming the entire council area.
According to him, the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, has praised the project concept, saying: “These programmes are all pragmatic, result-oriented and scaled to the real needs of real people. And this is only the beginning. Today, I call on every country to look closely at this success. It is a case study of what is possible, even in the poorest places of the world.”
Perhaps, to show his endorsement of the staff of the project, el Rufai last week appointed Dr. Clement Woje, who headed the multi-sector Pampaida MVP, as director general of Kaduna State Rural Development Projects in the Office of Kaduna State Deputy Governor.
National mirror
EmoticonEmoticon