Governor Okezie Ikpeazu will on Tuesday meet with the President of the Africa Development Bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina in Abidjan, the capital of Cote D’Ivoire.
The meeting, which is at the instance of Dr. Adesina is a follow up to the earlier meeting between the Governor and the Bank President during the Africa Investment Forum in Johannesburg, South Africa late last year, will involve technical teams from both sides aimed at pushing further and sealing major deals on infrastructure and agro processing.
The Africa Development Bank in a statement signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Onyebuchi Ememanka and made available to ABN TV is the funder of the Abia State Integrated Infrastructure Project which is designed to fast track massive development of infrastructure in the State, especially in Aba and Umuahia.
In the last four years, a lot of work has been done by the Abia team in compliance with the strict international standards of the Bank in developing a blueprint for the projects which involves massive rehabilitation of 18 roads covering a total of 138 kilometers. This process has now reached advanced stages with the pre-qualification of companies whose bids passed the technical evaluation of the Bank already completed.
Today’s meeting is expected to cap the engagements and set the tone for the immediate commencement of the evaluation of the financial bids of the six companies that made it to this stage which will finally lead to the award of contracts for the rehabilitation of these roads.
Another key component of today’s meeting will be the new collaboration between the Bank and the Abia State Government in the area of agro processing.
Governor Ikpeazu intends to seek the cooperation of the Bank in the development of the value chain in the production of key agricultural products like Palm Oil, Rice, Cocoa, Cassava, Maize and Cashew. Preliminary talks on this had also taken place in South Africa last year.
The Governor will be accompanied to the meeting by the Commissioner for Works, Mr. Chidozie Bob Ogu, who has, in the last four years, led the team of the Abia State Integrated Infrastructure Program that has interfaced with the Africa Development Bank on this project.
Other members of the delegation are the Commissioner for Finance, Dr. Aham Uko, the Commissioner for Agriculture, Professor Ikechi Mgbeoji and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Inter Governmental Affairs, Mr. Chinenye Nwaogu.
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