The Akwa Ibom State Government on Thursday said it spent N2.2bn to execute Millennium Development Goals projects in the state.
The Special Assistant to Gov. Godswill Akpabio on MDGs, Mr Steve Akpan, announced this in Abuja.
Akpan said the money was spent on provision of water, health care and education.
He said the state had witnessed transformation in the area of education, health and water, adding that the office was able to mainstream the MDGs goals.
“We were able to construct 42 solar powered bore holes; we have renovated more than 30 primary healthcare centres. More than 20 classroom blocks were renovated across the state.
“The projects listed in 2012 are the ones we just completed. Those for 2013 were brought forward to 2014.
“Between January and March, we are preparing to embark on first line survey to be able to identify the areas we have not been able to reach,” he said.
He said that the inventory would enable the office to intervene in providing basic social amenities to the people under 2014 programme.
The special assistant said a Village Workers Scheme was recently launched by the MDGs office and the state had about 50 of such workers.
Akpan said the scheme would help provide support to health facilities, conduct routine household visits to discharge patients and carry out data collection on health issues.
“These village health workers will go round the locality or areas assigned to them in some local governments to guide the pregnant women and children to benefit from the health facilities.
“The scheme will help to reduce maternal mortality and improve maternal health,” he said.
He said the major challenge being faced by the state government in projects implementation was that some youths in the communities did not allow the contractors to do their work.
“The state government has embarked on sensitisation campaigns to educate the youth on need to support the government in ensuring that these projects are completed.
“We have ensured that some of those challenges, including youth restiveness, are addresses,” he said.
