Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo State has said that critical scrutiny of the activities of the bureaus in charge of World Bank and other international and national interventions will go a long way in guaranteeing the success of the implementation of the interventions.

He has therefore established the Imo State Bureau for Donor Agencies charged with the responsibility of complete oversight of all programmes that are linked to opportunities from World Bank Interventions, International Grants, National Donor Programmes and other interventions in the state.

Addressing the Nigeria Covid-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus National Team and their State Steering Committee counterpart that paid him a courtesy visit at Government House Owerri, weekend, Uzodimma told the members that Imo State is poised to properly coordinate all World Bank projects and other International and Donor Agencies, hence the enactment of a law establishing the Imo State Bureau for Donor Agencies.

He told the National Project team that without prejudices to the operations of the World Bank Implementation Units, every intervention or programmes will go through the critical scrutiny of the bureau, to ascertain the manpower needs, both technical and non-technical, so as to deploy the needs to ensure a win-win situation where the World Bank, Federal Government and the state will all be happy.

The Governor, who had earlier listened to the presentations of the team leader on why they were in the state, expressed satisfaction that the national team had confirmed that Imo State is fully ready for the implementation of the NG-CARES. He promised them that whatever has not been done properly for the project to commence will be done without delay.

He commended the role of the Federal Government and the World Bank over the Project, and acknowledged the complementary role being played by the Secretariat of the Nigerian Governors Forum in ensuring that the project is implemented as designed.

Briefing the Governor earlier on why they came to Imo State, the Team Leader, Dr. Raphael Obi, said they came to assess the readiness of Imo State for the implementation of the NG-CARES.

According to Dr. Obi, they were sent by the World Bank to visit the 36 States and the FCT for the purpose of determining their readiness to assess the grants on the NG-CARES.

The team leader acknowledged that by their observations Imo State is close to 90 percent ready for the programme to commence.

He noted that the first requirement by the World Bank is the ‘’inauguration of the Steering Committee” which Imo State has already achieved.

Reassuring the Governor of their sincerity of purpose, the team promised not to be an impediment to the success of NG-CARES in Imo State.

The three-man national team was led on the visit to the Governor by the State Chairman of NG-CARES Steering Committee, who is also the State Commissioner for Finance and Co-coordinating Economy, Dr (Mrs) Doris Azuogu Anite.

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