The senior special assistant to the president on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), Dr. Precious Gbeneol, has warned states and local government councils against undue delay of MDGs funds in banks, with the intent of earning interest on them.
Gbeneol made this known in Bwari when she paid an advocacy visit to traditional rulers and inspected MDGs projects sited in the area. She informed that the funds from the MDGs office to the states were meant to be counterpart-oriented by the respective states and used to build social infrastructure to empower the common people, even as she revealed that N1.2b has been released to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) since last year.
“The funds are meant to be used to build infrastructure for water, health, education and environmental- related projects that will impact positively in the lives of the ordinary people. Any council or state found doing so will no longer be able to access further funding,” She said, while urging the traditional rulers to assist in sensitising their communities on the need to not only utilise the MDG projects but also maintain them.
The traditional rulers: Sarki Bwari, Alhaji Musa Muhammed and Esu Bwari, Ibrahim Yaro, in their respective remarks, promised to embark on community sensitisation of their communities to participate in the MDGs.
Similarly, Bwari area council chairman, Peter Yohana, noted that the community had made a tremendous progress in the MDGs, but pointed out that the major challenge faced was the vandalisation of the facility.