By Ihechinyere Chigemeri-Uwom
The Abia Government says it will soon launch a 25-year Greater Aba Master Plan, a comprehensive, long-term blueprint designed to guide the development and transformation of the commercial city.
The Commissioner for Information, Mr Okey Kanu, disclosed this on Monday, while briefing newsmen at the Government House, Umuahia on the outcome of the State Executive Council (EXCO) meeting.
Kanu described the initiative as a product of collaboration between the Greater Aba Development Authority and the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat).
According to him, the plan focuses on four key pillars, which include: road infrastructure and connectivity, economic development, sustainable urban expansion, and flood management.
He said: “The State Government, through a collaborative effort between the Greater Aba Development Authority and UN-Habitat, has been working assiduously for a while now to deliver on this master plan.
“The master plan which, in the main, will address the land use infrastructure and communication goals of the authority and the master plan is designed to rest on four pillars.
“The first pillar is road infrastructure, which includes transportation, development and connectivity within Aba.
“The second pillar will deal with economic development of Aba and it will deal with industrial zones, upgrades and formalisation of commercial hubs within the city.
“The third pillar will deal with sustainable development and planned urban expansion of Aba, while the fourth pillar will deal with terrestrial resilience and flood management which, of course, have been a perennial problem of that city.”
On health, Kanu said that the government had inaugurated three additional Primary Health Centres(PHC), as part of the 17 completed PHCs under the Project Ekwueme Scheme.
He said that the fourth PHCs would be inaugurated on June 20 in Ngu, Bende Local Government Area.
He disclosed that the centres were fully equipped with modern medical tools and staffed with qualified personnel to improve healthcare accessibility across the state.
Kanu said that the state’s health insurance scheme currently boasts of 91,227 enrollees, and described the figure as “encouraging”.
He said that the State Ministry of Health had also received approval to expand coverage to the informal sector in the coming weeks.
He also said that a new Intensive Care Unit had become operational in Abia State Specialist and Diagnostic Hospital, “significantly enhancing emergency medical response and specialised surgeries”.
He said that the state had made remarkable progress in its broader public infrastructure overhaul.
The commissioner also said that the hostel renovations at the Abia State University, Uturu, were nearing completion.
He also said that the institution would commence staff recruitment in critical academic areas, following the state EXCO’s approval.
Kanu further said that projects, including internal roads construction, library upgrades, and auditorium retrofitting were ongoing in Abia State College of Education Technical, Arochukwu (ASCETA).
He said that those were part of the administration’s agenda to support course accreditation efforts in ASCETA and ultimately take education in institutions of higher learning in the state to greater heights.
He spoke on the recent security situation in the state and admitted that there had been security breaches.
He expressed government’s resolve to address the situation “with a robust response”.
Kanu said that security agencies were on high alert to ensure peace and security were sustained across the state.
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