Abia to set up poultry villages

Investing in agriculture will not only create jobs, but also will eradicate poverty and increase the internally generated revenue of Abia State, observes Obinna Oriaku, Abia State commissioner for finance.

Consequently, the state is set to establish poultry villages in the three senatorial zones to encourage youths and others who have interest in poultry farming, but with little or no funds, to realise their dreams.

Oriaku, in an interview with BusinessDay in Aba, said the poultry villages would have feed mills, veterinary sections, cold rooms and marketing sections, noting that farmers would be allowed to rent facilities at the farm village at subsidised rates.

The commissioner also said government would partner investors in the project to empower young farmers with funds.

He expressed happiness over the successes so far recorded by the present administration in the state, especially on the ongoing road construction and rehabilitation in Aba and other parts of the state, and promised that the Governor Okezie Ikpeazu-led administration would strive to make Abia better than he met it.

The state government is currently building 47 roads across the state, he said, saying, “We have also completed two bridges, one at Okon in Ohafia Local Government Area and another at Umuneochi.

“When you look at the state generally, the model of governance and what we have done so far, everybody is excited. It may interest you to know that we are the only state in the country that paid salary early before the 2015 yuletide. Abia civil servants got their salaries on December 19, 2015.

“We received federal allocation on December 28. We did not wait for FAC allocation to pay our workers, because we wanted them to be happy, because as they said, ‘they have never gone home with their December salaries before Christmas.’ So, that singular action is unprecedented in the state.”

On how the state is sourcing funds to finance the ongoing projects, despite the economic crunch in the country, he said the Abia State government had instituted an anti-corruption mechanism that had made it impossible for civil servants to pilfer public funds.

The state has so far saved well over N700 million monthly from ghost workers and other loopholes civil servants steal from government funds have been blocked, thereby putting more money into government coffers for development, he said.