Francis Sardauna in Katsina
The Katsina State-owned Community Development Programme (CDP) has empowered more than two million people across the state through various empowerment initiatives and rural development projects.
The state Coordinator of the CDP, Professor Kamaludden Kabir, disclosed this last Tuesday during the inauguration of the executive committee members (EXCOs) of ‘Dikko Mayar Da Alkhairi Da Alkhairi’.
Kabir said the beneficiaries were drawn from all the 361 wards across Katsina State, and stressed that the state government rural revitalisation initiative has improved the livelihoods of citizens and created opportunities for economic empowerment.
He said the initiative had continued to impact communities across the state through various interventions aimed at supporting vulnerable people and enhancing their economic wellbeing.
The coordinator explained that the state government, through the CDP, distributed 400,000 bags of fertiliser to farmers and 60,000 bags of assorted grains to vulnerable citizens across the 361 wards of the state last year.
He added that the same quantities of fertiliser and grains were distributed by the community development programme this year to boost food productivity and assuage the plight of vulnerable households in the state.
“In the past three years, the Katsina State Government, through the Community Development Programme (CDP), has successfully reached out to more than two million people through various empowerment programmes and rural development projects,” he said.
Responding, the state Governor, Dikko Umaru Radda, said the World Bank has expressed interest in taking the state’s community development programme framework as a model for consideration and possible adoption in other states across the country.
He said the development followed a recent engagement with a World Bank delegation, which expressed satisfaction with the effectiveness and grassroots impact of the programme.
Radda said the recognition demonstrated the value of the CDP’s community-based approach to delivering government interventions and ensuring that development programmes reach people at the grassroots.
He commended the CDP for taking government interventions and development initiatives to communities across the state, saying its work had helped bridge the gap between government programmes and the people.
Earlier, the state All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairman, Dr Bashir Gambo Saulawa, urged members of the group to communicate the achievements of the Radda-led administration to the people at the grassroots.
He enumerated the recruitment of 10,000 teachers, construction and renovation of schools, educational opportunities for less-privileged students to study abroad, road projects, the modernisation of healthcare facilities and the renovation of Danja Dam for irrigation development as some of the achievements of the state government.
He stated that the ‘Dikko Mayar Da Alkhairi Da Alkhairi’ movement would become a formidable grassroots platform within the APC to mobilise support for the administration across the state.