By Nurudeen Alimi
The Oyo State Community and Social Development Agency (OYCSDA) has distributed funds to thirty communities across the state.
The micro-projects, which are based on 鈥榝elt-need鈥 importance from each community, are under school construction or renovation, community health centre construction or renovation, erosion control, as well as the provision of portable water.
In his keynote address at the training and disbursement of funds to the thirty communities at the House of Chiefs in Ibadan, the Chairman, Oyo State Community and Social Development Agency (OYCSDA), Hon. Abideen Adetokunbo Adeaga eulogised the Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde for approving the funding of the micro-projects which include construction of culverts and line drainages in five communities, construction or renovation of community health centers in seven communities, construction or renovation of a block of three classrooms in eighteen communities and drilling of motorized boreholes in thirty communities.
Adeaga said the micro-projects were meant to expand access to basic health care, education, good roads and portable water, which were part of the effort of the incumbent administration to fulfil the promises made under the popular manifesto tagged 鈥極yo State Roadmap to Sustainable Development 2023-2027 (Omituntun-2.0).
鈥淚n line with the Governor鈥檚 strategic moves, OYCSDA is intervening in communities that prioritized culverts and line drainages for improved access roads, building or renovation of school buildings and community health centers, this way Governor Seyi Makinde鈥檚 administration is creating employment, conducive teaching and learning environment, access to portable water to defeat waterborne diseases as well as improved access to health care services by all and sundry.
鈥淧ermit me to recount that when the OYO-CARES took off officially in the year 2022, the budget could only cover forty-eight communities, then the maximum grant to communities was N15million, but His Excellency has magnanimously increased it to N18million when inflation affected the cost of materials.
鈥淒espite the intervention at the planned forty-eight communities, the Governor approved supplementary funds for implementation of micro-projects in sixty-six communities, bringing it to a total of 114 communities benefiting from 256 micro-projects across the state.
鈥淚n a surprising turn, Governor Makinde recently approved the release of more funds for intervention in an additional thirty communities in a move to ensure more people and more communities have improved access to micro infrastructure services that improve their lives.鈥
In his words, the Deputy Speaker, Oyo State House of Assembly and Chairman, House Committee on Project Monitoring, Rt. Hon. Abiodun Muhammed Fadeyi, who was a Special Guest at the event, urged the benefiting communities to embrace due diligence and probity during the project execution exercise, as the State鈥檚 anti-corruption agency (OYACA) would be watching.
While appreciating the OYCSDA on behalf of other benefiting communities, the Chairman of Agbedo Community Management Committee, Professor Israel Adesiyan, said the efforts of the State and OYCSDA in alleviating the conditions of various communities in Oyo State deserved accolades, adding that the people in the areas would continue to pray for the Seyi Makinde-led administration to end well.
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