Determined to find lasting solution to frequent flooding in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, the Federal Government has approved a credit facility of $200million for the State.
The Minister of State for Finance, Bashir Yuguda while briefing State House correspondents after the weekly Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, recalled that Ibadan, had witnessed massive flooding in 1980 and 2011.
According to him, with the credit facility of $200million, the government would be able to manage the frequent flooding in the city, adding that remedial works had bee carried out to avert future occurrence.
His words, “It is important to know that when the Eleyele Dam became unsafe, there were lots of problems that happened in Ibadan: drainage system was bad, solid waste management was threatened, the land use planning and flood control assess management was also threatened”
“We believe with this credit facility coming, the Federal Government will be able to assess the situation”.
Yuguda, also disclosed that FEC approved credit facility of $495 International Development Association (IDA) for irrigation management in the country.
He said the facility has five years moratorium with repayment plan spanning 20 years and a service charge of 0.75 per cent and interest rate of 1.25 per cent per annum with commitment fee of 0.5 per cent per annum.
He stated that the facility would upscale the efforts of the Federal Government in improving the irrigation system in the country.
Yuguda noted that part of the fund under the IDA credit would ensure cultivation of the irrigatable land in the country, stressing that the country presently have an estimated 2.2million hectares of potentially irrigatable land out of which about one million hectares is located in the Northern part.
According to Yuguda, the beneficiaries of the loan which would be managed by the Ministry of Water Resources would be in four components.
The minister disclosed that $81million would be spent on Water Resource Management and Dam Operation Improvement, $294million on Irrigation Development and Management, $38million would be used to enhance the agricultural productivity and support the value chain development
He added that governance and institutional framework would cost $30million while the contingency under the programme would be about $52million.
The Bakolori Dam and Irrigation Scheme in Zamfara State would also benefit from the project.
Yuguda said FEC approved $250million for the proposed national urban water sector to address the urban sector project in which Rivers, Enugu and Ekiti states would benefit, stressing that it would be implemented over a period of six years.
