The permanent secretary/ accountant-general, Lagos State Treasury Office, Abiodun Muritala, says the state government has lived up to the expectations and recommendations of local and international organisations in implementing impactful programmes for the benefits of Lagosians.
Muritala stated this while receiving officials of the federal ministry of finance, who were on a scheduled visit to Lagos as part of the 2020 statutory Borrower’s Monitoring and Evaluation of all donor assisted projects nationwide.
According to him, Lagos recorded appreciable successes with the “Save One Million Lives (SOML) project, the APPEALS project, the States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) and Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) master plan project.
Muritala explained that the Babajide Sanwo-Olu-led administration would continue to utilise all financial grants from both local and international agencies for the betterment of Lagosians, in order to fulfil the yearnings of the over 20 million residents in the state.
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Aisha Umar, team leader from the international economic relations directorate of the federal ministry of finance, said the visit was to ensure that the development objectives of the donor assisted projects are achieved.
“The team is on a monitoring and evaluation review of the implementation progress of the components under the various projects and to follow up on outstanding issues as well as review project disbursement levels,” said Umar.
She added that the Federal Government was aiming at identifying all challenges hindering the smooth implementation of projects and to provide adequate support and solutions to the benefiting agencies or governments on the effective coordination of project implementation.
Ranti Ovieboh, who represented the ministry of agriculture, remarked on efforts by the Lagos State government in the area of APPEALS project, which aims at enhancing agricultural productivity of small and medium-scale farmers.
Ovieboh noted that though the project implementation suffered an initial setback, however, activities were in top gear following the ease of the lockdown and suspension of the #Endsars protest.
She stated that over 6,000 farmers, SMEs have so far been trained across the value chains of poultry, aquaculture and rice, stressing that 165 persons living with disabilities have been identified with their needs assessment already carried out and implementation scheduled to commence in the first quarter of 2021.
