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The ENUGU State governor, Dr. Peter MBAH has said his administration’s decision to dedicate 33 % of the state’s annual budget to education was because of its potential to reduce poverty.
Governor Mbah stated this on Saturday at the maiden Town Hall meeting with stakeholders in Enugu with the theme: “ Issues of Governance, the Journey So Far”, held at Old Governor’s Lodge.
He said his government has introduced landmark projects aimed at repositioning the education sector.
Mbah disclosed that the 260 smart schools being constructed in the 260 political wards of the state by his administration will come on stream by 2025 adding that contract has already been awarded for construction of smart schools in160 wards while the remaining 100 will commence soon.
The Governor said that the smart school will go beyond the primary school education and over a 12 years compulsory and free education to every child born in the state.
He disclosed that early life learning is part of the smart school initiative which he said will enable children be absorbed from nursery to primary schools.
“They will be exposed to modern learning environment and this will see a transition from chalkboard to smart boards and our pupils will no longer struggle with notebooks as they’ll be given notepads for their lesson notes,” adding that “our children is at the epicentre of our plans for the state.”
Dr. Mbah unveiled the plans of his government to tackle head on the challenges posed by epileptic power supply to businesses and residents of the state.
He said that the State Electricity Regulatory Commission will be soon be set up as part of measures to actualize the goal.
The governor said the state would explore the opportunities provided by the power sector reforms to generate and distribute power to boost businesses and ensure steady power supply to the residents.
“Electricity is a major infrastructural requirements for industrial development. We are going to set up Enugu State Electricity Regulatory Commission as we tackle all legal and regulatory issues in actualizing the objective.
“Working with the private sector we shall generate and distribute electricity in Enugu by the end of 2026. We will build née transmitters lines and handle distribution of power.
“People can come here to buy and distribute power, our desire is to ensure we have steady power supply to businesses and households in Enugu,” the governor said.
In the health sector, the Governor also said that his administration is building 260 type II Health centres across the wards and 30 of such health centrea have already been awarded, while 100 will soon be awarded.
He described as the unacceptable the current maternal mortality rate in the state, saying “we’re doing everything to bring it down and to help tackle this.”
He said his administration has increased the number of nurses admitted into state owned institutions and the schools of nursing are getting the needed face-lift.
The governor said his administration has not increased tax rate as wrongly perceived by some individuals.
Mbah maintained that what his administration did was to expand the tax net to capture businesses that have not been paying taxes over the years.
In the area of security, Mbah said that the Security Trust Fund that was established is largely to help raise funds in support of the state government’s efforts on security.
The governor who also said his administration inherited arrears of pension both at the state and local government levels, informed the people that his government has cleared pension arrears at the state level. He said that an audit exercise is going on for the local government pensioners prior to settling the arrears.
In the area of infrastructures, Mbah said his administration has awarded the construction of not less than 81 urban roads ongoing in the state.
This he said is in addition to construction of at least 10km roads in all the 260 political wards in the state that is also underway.
