The Cross River State Government has received support from the World Bank after the destruction of properties during the #EndSars protest that took place in Calabar on Oct. 23 and 24.
After the destruction, the state government through the Ministry of International Development Cooperation had approached the World Bank to render support to the state, especially in the delivery units of the World Bank Assisted Programme, CARES, which is scheduled to commence very soon in the state.
The items donated include furniture, 20 seater conference chairs, air conditioners and inverters, laptop computers and printers, virtual meeting equipment, hybrid inverter with solar among many others.
Speaking after distributing the equipment to the different unit, the Commissioner for MIDC, Dr Inyang Asibong, expressed happiness with the gesture from the World Bank, saying that the distribution was coming at the first day of resumption of duties in the year.
She explained that two result areas of the Ministry, FADAMA and EDF were badly affected during the protest and all the items were destroyed by hoodlums.
According to her, the items will go a long way to enable the staff of the result areas to get back to work in preparation for the CARES programme.
"The CARES is COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus of the government. It is going to be a state owned project and Gov. Ben Ayade is so committed about improving the lives of residents in the state.
"We know that the poverty index in Nigeria is 40.1, and this is really high. Cross River is lower than the national average, 36.3, we want to further reduce that our percentage to atleast a single digit.
"I want to thank the World Bank for coming to our aid at this point in time, and we can assure them we will make the best use of these equipment," she said.
Also Speaking, Mr Fidel Udie, the Acting General Manager of Community and Social Development Agency, said that the donation confirms the good working relationship between the state government and the World Bank.
Udie said that the donation will now put the state in a good position to participate in the CARES programme, which is a World Bank Assisted Programme.
"These programme is basically meant to target the poor and vulnerable in the society. Offcourse, without these agencies and their platforms been able to have their working tools and be ready for the implementation of the programme, the state cannot join other states for the programme.
"Gov. Ayade was able to follow up with the World Bank and here we have these equipment to help the delivery units to be ready for this programme," he said.
He mentioned the platforms benefiting from the equipment to include; CSDA, the state coordinating unit, FADAMA, Enterprise Development Funding, Smart City, Public Work Fare and the state Cash Transfer Unit.
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