Wike pledges to review Abuja Master Plan, improve nutrition funding

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has reiterated the FCT Administration’s commitment to the review and upgrade of the Abuja Master Plan.

Mr Wike stated this when a team of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) visited him in Abuja on Tuesday.

He said the project, under the Review and Upgrading of Integrated Urban Development Master Plan for Abuja, would be implemented in partnership with JICA.

“For us, be assured that it is a project that we are committed to, and we will do all we can to see that the project comes to fruition,” he said.

The minister promised the JICA team that all the expectations from the FCTA for the implementation of the project would be made in due course.

He also assured JICA of stronger collaboration for the development of the FCT, including satellite towns and environs.

Also speaking, Shehu Ahmad, executive secretary of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), said the review of the 45-year-old Abuja Master Plan was crucial to addressing the capital city’s current challenges.

“We are talking about supporting facilities in terms of infrastructure, water supply, power supply, and storm water and wastewater drainage system.

“We are also looking at the need for a smart city for Abuja so that the city will be one of the top cities of the world.

“Urban mobility has remained a challenge, and we are feeling that they should look into those areas to enhance it,” he said.

Mr Ahmad said the population explosion in Abuja had equally created the need to look into the creation of employment opportunities.

He said the JICA team, with support from a technical team from critical departments of the FCTA and FCDA have begun collection of basic data for the formulation of the project’s inception report.

According to him, an international conference will be convened to seek inputs from critical stakeholders once the inception report is approved.

Earlier, Matsunaga Kazuyoshi, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Japan to Nigeria, said the open defecation, nutrition and urban development projects were few among the numerous projects being implemented by JICA in FCT.

Mr Kazuyoshi particularly said that Capacity Development for Nutrition Improvement in FCT and the elimination of open defecation projects recorded a huge success.

He solicited more collaboration with the FCTA to deepen the result-oriented project to impact more communities of the FCT.

Speaking on the review and upgrade of the Abuja Master Plan, Nobukuyi Kobe, Infrastructure Management Department, JICA, said the goal was to ensure sustainability in line with relevant government policies.

Mr Kobe said that Output 1 of the project was the formulation of a regional infrastructure development strategy for the Federal Capital City and satellite towns and an integrated urban development plan from 2025 to 2050.

He added that Output 2, was to enhance the capacity of planning and implementation officers of the reviewed plan.

He, however, said that FCTA would be expected to support in expediting correspondence with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The FCTA, he said, is also expected to approve the reviewed and updated plan, along with the Urban and Regional Planning Act, as well as seamless collaboration of FCTA and FCDA.

Nutrition intervention to get increased funding

Mr Wike also promised to increase funds allocation for nutrition intervention in the FCT Administration’s 2025 budget.

The minister particularly commended the agency’s Capacity Development for Nutrition Improvement Project (CADNIP) in FCT and open defecation projects, which he described as a huge success.

He said that to sustain the successes, the FCTA would improve the budgetary allocation for nutrition intervention in 2025, but with a caveat on transparency and accountability in the utilisation of the funds.

He pointed out that improved nutrition was key to achieving goals in health, education and agriculture, among other sectors.

“Therefore, if we could add more funds, it will go a long way in improving the standard of service delivery in major sectors,” he said.

Mr Wike further requested the continuation of JICA intervention in education, particularly to improve the teaching of mathematics and other science subjects in FCT public schools.

Ubokutom Nyah, the mandate secretary, Economic Planning, Revenue Generation and Public Private Partnership, disclosed Mr Wike’s approval for the establishment of a Nutrition Department in the secretariat and a Nutrition Unit across FCTA secretariat and agencies.

Mr Nyah pointed out that the FCTA has been struggling to establish the nutrition department to serve as the focal point for the operation of nutrition programmes and projects.

“This was the clog that was holding the success and implementation of nutrition project in the FCTA.

“It is part of the requirement for the smooth implementation of the JICA nutrition project and other nutrition interventions,” he said.

Also, Udo Atang, Head of FCT Civil Service, said that the approval for the establishment of the nutrition department has been forwarded to Common Services.

Mr Atang explained that the measure was for the department to be properly reflected in the FCTA’s organisational structure.

He said that recommendations for appointment of the Head of the Nutrition Department and other deployments would be forwarded to the minister for approval.

According to him, the multisectoral approval would enhance the structure and improve nutrition programme coordination and implementation in the FCTA.

On his part, the Chief Project Advisor of CADNIP, Sonoyama Hideki, explained that the project, earlier designed for implementation from March 2019 to February 2024 has been extended to October 2024.

Mr Hideki said that the project targeted 11,000 pregnant women, children under two years, and mothers.

He said that the project goal was to develop an effective food-based nutrition improvement approach in rural areas.

He added that the project was also designed to strengthen the multisectoral structure of FCTA to adopt the approach.

The chief project advisor said that at the end of the five-year project, minimum dietary diversity for children from six to 23 months increased from 31.8 per cent to 49.8 per cent.

He added that minimum meal frequency for the same age group increased from 81.5 per cent to 86.9 per cent, while minimum dietary diversity for mothers and pregnant women increased from 41.3 per cent to 54.1 per cent.

(NAN)