Wednesday May 7, 2025 |
Akwa Ibom State Rural Access and Agricultural Marketing Project, AKS-RAAMP has been given a pat on the back for ranking one of the best, considering her implementation status vis-avis other states participating in the project.
The World Bank Task Team Leader, Mr. Rakesh Treparti; Chairman: State Project Monitoring Committee SPMC / Permanent Secretary Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Atim Okoko; Hon. Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Offiong Offor; and the National Coordinator of RAAMP, Engr. Aminu Mohammed during plenary session at the Conference Room of AKS-RAAMP
World Bank Task Team Leader, Mr. Rakesh Treparti and the National Coordinator of RAAMP, Engr. Aminu Mohammed made the observations in their separate remarks recently during their joint World Bank and the Federal Project Management Unit, FPMU tour of the state for a physical assessment of projects undertaken by AKS-RAAMP.
In his words, Mr. Treparti described Akwa Ibom as “one of the very highly rated states in RAAMP,” while Engr. Mohammed noted that in terms of other participating states, “the implementation status of Akwa Ibom is highly commendable.”
The duo applauded Akwa Ibom State Government’s wisdom in domiciling the project in the Ministry of Agriculture, describing Dr. Mrs. Offiong Offor – the State Commissioner for Agriculture as one of the few political figures in RAAMP that had been quite fast to assimilate, understand and develop an intentional effort towards actualising the project in the state, “while in some other states the project is domiciled under ministries and departments with limited correlation to requirements of the project, even as the heads of those establishments have not been flexible enough to run with the necessary technical requirements, which explains part of their delay to meet up.”
They further hailed the ingenuity of the State Project Implementation Unit, SPIU led by Pastor Gideon Akpan, whose experience, determination and commitment has raised AKS-RAAMP to her current altitude of reckoning, among the 20 participant states across the country.
In another development, Mr. Treparti announced that the World Bank had approved a Scale – Up project that is scheduled for commencement at the expiration tenure of RAAMP and made a case for the current SPIU of AKS-RAAMP to be sustained, considering their wealth of experience and capacity building garnered over the years in the course of implementation of the project.
Treparti however noted that eligibility for the new project would be the operationalisation of Rural Access Road Agency (RARA) / State Road Fund (SRF) by states; government annual budget support for RARA / SRF; appointment of Director General; as well as an office accommodation for the agency and expressed optimism that Akwa Ibom State would rollover into the RAAMP Scale -Up project.
It could be recalled that placement of RARA / SRF bill before the House of Assembly within 18 months of the implementation was one of the covenants by participant states to further draw funds for the implementation of RAAMP in their respective states.
The Akwa Ibom State RARA bill was passed into law by the House of Assembly on April 13, 2023 and assented to by the immediate past Governor – Mr. Udom Emmanuel on May 02, 2023.
In her remarks, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Dr. Offiong Offor introduced her new permanent secretary, Dr. Mrs. Atim Okoko, as she thanked the World Bank and FPMU teams for believing in Akwa Ibom and ascribed the heights attained by AKS-RAAMP to the rural development focus of the State Governor, Pastor Umo Bassey Eno, PhD which places agriculture and rural development as a flagship index of the ARISE agenda.
Earlier in his presentation, the State Project Coordinator of AKS-RAAMP, Pastor Gideon Akpan indicated that a summary of 202.83 kilometers of civil works and three agro-logistics centers were being intervened upon by the project.
The interventions cut across various typologies: Demonstration road – 11 kilometers; Backlog Maintenance (Phase 1& 2) – 64.81 kilometers; Spot Improvement (Initial Scope) – 110.92 kilometers; Upgraded Spot Improvement – 69.54 kilometers; and Upgrading – 16.09 kilometers; while the three markets to be transformed into standard ultra-modern agro-logistics centers are: Ekponwa market in Nsit Ibom; Naira market in Ikono and Atabong beach market in Okobo Local Government Areas respectively.
Out of these, 28 kilometers of the roads traversing 15 communities had been completed and would soon be scheduled for commissioning. They include: 11- kilometer Owotuta – Nung Oku Ekere – Afaha Udo Eyop – Edeobom – Utuat market junction demonstration rural road in Ibesikpo Asutan and Nsit Ibom Local Government Areas; 7.11 – kilometer Ibiaku Obio Ndobo – Adadia Road in Uruan Local Government Area; and 2.12 – kilometer Okop Nko – Okop Ndua Road in Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area.
Pastor Akpan appreciated the State Governor, Pastor Umo Eno for embracing and investing in the project, pledging that his team would live above board in delivering the goods.
Highpoints of the exercise was a detailed evaluation tour of the project sites, where the joint team assessed the jobs based on various criteria: technical matters, safeguards issues, monitoring and evaluation techniques; as well as social and economic development indicators, among other indices.
