Tony Osauzo, Benin
The World Bank-sponsored State Employment and Expenditure for Result (SEEFOR) has budgeted $70 million (about N25 billion) for its intervention in public works in youth engagements in four Niger Delta States of Edo, Delta, Bayelsa and Rivers states for 2019.
Task Team Leader of SEEFOR in Nigeria, Parminder Brar, disclosed this, on Monday, in Benin-City, at the opening session of a four-day interaction among the four states on Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS).
He said of the total amount, Edo State would receive $18.2 million (N6.5 billion).
“The SEEFOR project will be spending about $1.5 million every month in Edo State and basically Edo has been doing well, this project covers public works for next year.
“This project will support the employment of 9,000 young people in Edo State for the next 12 months and we will be implementing almost 59 small projects in Edo State.
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“We are supporting TVET (Technical and Vocational Education Training). We are supporting Benin Technical College and other institutions in Edo State and we are supporting public financial management.
“We have been supporting automation, the oracle implementation in Edo State and Edo State has been doing very well in oracle implementation although there are some things they need to do,” Brar said.
He explained that the meeting among the four states was to share ideas and compare notes in strong and weak areas.
Earlier, Project Coordinator in Edo State, Toju Onaiwu, said SEEFOR would achieve 95 per cent disbursement of the funds in the state before the end of the year.
“We are fine-tuning the system to make it function better and again with technology we want to keep upgrading and have a robust SEEFOR system in place”, he said.
In his welcome address, Special Adviser on Budget to Governor Godwin Obaseki, Joseph Eboigbe, said the Obaseki administration had ensured continued improvement of its administration’s budgetary implementation and transparency in government.