…Says It Is Targeting World Bank $5Million Grant
Benue State government has begun the aerial survey and capturing of Benue state lands, as part of ongoing work for the take off of Benue State Geographic Information System, BENGIS.
Governor Samuel Ortom who flagged off the survey at the Makurdi Airport, on Saturday, also inspected ongoing project on BENGIS office, at the permanent site of Ministry of Lands and Solid Minerals.
Ortom said it is the intention of his administration to fast track ongoing work on the project to
enable the state to qualify to access the World Bank Grant which is estimated at $5million.
He explained “What we did at the airport was to inspect the process of air survey of the entire Benue state. We are targeting all the Local Government Headquarters in the state and some mini urban areas so that they would be captured in our system.
“Our intention is to also fast track this and try to qualify it for the World Bank Grant which is estimated at $5million.”
Ortom said the state government have paid more than a N3billion being
half of the money that is required for the project which is a total sum of N6billion.
He said the government’s intention is that by April or before the next Democracy Day celebration, June 12, the project should be commissioned and operation going on.
Ortom who noted that government would appreciate anything that will add to what they already have, enthused that his administration would be able to access the sum of $5million on completing the project.
“The second one is that once the project is completed, we would have succeeded in computerizing the entire landmass of Benue state, and then, the administration of land in the state becomes much easier.
“You can sit in your office and be able to do every other thing and this issue of duplication of Certificate of Occupancy, C of O, will be eliminated completely.
“And above all, revenue generation and collection will become easier for us. So we believe that we should be making billions of Naira every year once this project takes off.”
The Governor commended the contractor for the work so far done and urged them to continue work on the project non-stop to enable them meet the target date.