Benue injects 300m, World Bank $2.5m to enumerate houses

From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi

Benue State Government in collaboration with the World Bank is to.commence the enumeration of houses within Urban areas.
The State Commissioner for Lands, Survey and Solid Minerals Bernard Unenge disclosed this yesterday at the unveiling of States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainable Programme (SFTAS) World Bank Assisted Property Enumeration Project and Benue Geographic Information Service sensitization exercise held in Makurdi.
He intimated that the state government has injected over 300 million naira into the project while the World Bank is expected to bring in 2.5 million dollar, adding that the programme is to capture at least 50 percent of properties within the three (3) Urban cities of Makurdi, Gboko and Otukpo local government areas.
“The target is about 85,000 properties, but we are targeting 100,000 in case we have some errors, so we use what is left to make it up.
The project is going to cost the state close to N300 million, but what we are expecting from the World Bank is within the range of about $2.5 million and above, depending on how fast we can get the data across to the World Bank.
“We have so far trained about a hundred enumerators. The project enables for planning with access to accurate and timely data. Critical factors in decision making such as demography, population, existing amenities or lack of it, access roads and other developmental elements provide a rich source of information for good governance, provision of infrastructure as well as enable government prudently apply its resources in areas of needs”, Unenge said.
Governor Samuel Ortom said the rapid spread and complex nature of crime in society today, government needs among other measures, to take this proactive measure of taking proper inventory of buildings, their owners, occupants and other details.