– The Benue State Government has launched the N1.7 trillion 10-year (2026 – 2034), Benue State Development Plan, that forms part of the Blueprint of the State Governor, Rev Fr Hyacinth Alia.

Out of the sum, N1.6 trillion is expected to be raised from internally generated sources and the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), while the remaining amount of about 4 percent, is expected to be raised from development partners and Public Private Partnership (PPP).

This was made known during the public presentation and launch of three policy documents or the state: the 10-year State Development Plan; the 5-year Social Protection Policy, the Food and Nutrition Policy and the five-year Multisectoral Action Plan for Food and Nutrition in Makurdi last weekend.

During the programme which was organised by the State Government in collaboration with UNICEF, it was revealed that the 10-year Development Plan which is 5 years costed is expected to be channelled towards the development agenda of the Governor Alia, led administration.

At the presentation and dissemination of the documents, the Chief Field Officer (CFO), UNICEF, Enugu Field Office, Juliet Chiluwe, said that if the policy documents were adequately implemented it would go a long way in enhancing sustainable development efforts of the state.

She said, “UNICEF is delighted by the commitment, passion, and desire of the state in achieving this feat. We commend the robust consultations that led to the elaboration of these
documents, and we are convinced that the implementation would be more robust and inclusive.

“We are sure this plan would set the state on the path to achieving the vision and objectives of this administration and beyond. We are positive that if these plans and policies are supported by robust budgetary provisions and adequately implemented, they will enhance the sustainable development efforts of the state.

“As UNICEF, we are prepared to continue supporting the state towards the achievement of the strategic results in these documents and other national and global priorities, as we are committed to strengthen the already existing collaboration with the good people of Benue state,” she pledged.

Speaking at the event, Governor Alia, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Barr. Selumun Abeh, appreciated UNICEF and those involved in making the policy a success.

While acknowledging that a lot of manpower has been put into the policy documents, she promised that the documents would be a roadmap for the state and a reference material for all to ensure that what needs to be done was achieved.

The Governor who however observed that having a policy was not enough, vowed that government would not pay lip service to the implementation of the documents.

Observing that the figures in the state were not so good, Alia said issues of nutrition have been captured in the 2005 budget and all hands must be on deck to achieve the smooth implementation of the policies.

On her part, the Executive Secretary (ES), Benue State Primary Health Care Board (BSPHCB), Mrs Grace Ashi Wende who explained that most of the projects under the programme would be implemented by her office assured that her office would do all it takes to ensure the full implementation of the policies in all the local government areas of the state as encapsulated in the documents.

The ES who appreciated UNICEF for their support and ensuring that the documents see the light of day.

Meanwhile, the Director General (DG), State Budget and Economic Planning Commission, Prof Jerome Andohol also appreciated UNICEF for their support towards the production of the development plans.

The DG who spoke with INDEPENDENT at the event said, “Today we have successfully made a public presentation/launch of three key documents for both coordination, plans and deliveries for the state.

“One of the documents is a 10 year development plan, but 5 year costed of His Excellency’s Blueprint which we have elaborated going into from 2025 to 2034. And that document has a total costed figure of N1.7 trillion; that’s within 5 years, that we are expecting to get which will be channelled into his development agenda.

“And N1.6 trillion of that is expected to me gotten from internally generates sources as well as FAAC, while the remaining amount we are expecting, which is about 4 percent, we are expecting to get from development partners and about 5 percent of that amount we are expecting to get from Public Private Partnership.

“And the document which is the Benue State Development Plan is built on the 7 point agenda of His Excellency’s Blueprint, which is the Strategic Development Plan for a Greater Benue. It’s in two volumes; Volume One is what articulates the entirety of all the sectors that will drive the plan and Volume Two is the costed 5 year Development Plan to which we are going to be deriving our yearly budget.

“We also have the Policy that has to do with social protection which is a policy that is going to give us the drive in seeing how we can structure out amenities, development as regard our vulnerable groups; women as well as children and maybe persons who are in the IDP spaces and that too has its own plan which we hopefully think it can drive development in those areas.

“And again, the other plan which is that of the Food and Nutrition plan has its own strength to see how we can provide nutritional value to the generality of the Benue public. The good thing with the nutritional policy and plan as it were is that not too long ago the federal government launched an initiative called Nutrition 774, that is going to affect every local government and how they will drive that initiative in ensuring that all our local governments are connected in terms of nutrition and how they can provide for the generality of the Benue citizenry in providing the right nutritional content for the Benue people. This is also tied to what we have in our annual budget, the budget of human capital development, that of food security and digital economic.

“So in all of these things we are trying to do, we are also putting our budget in theme with that.

“And our projections… and because the future is what we are trying to look at and we said that in the next five years we are hoping to bring in N1.7 trillion to enable us drive this plan. But in an event that it does not come to play, since it is a futuristic forecast we will still have to reorganize it and that is what come to what we term in economic balance MTEF, which is the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, so that is also the subsect of the plan in terms of the financing power of the plan. So we will be reviewing that, revising it, year in, year out to see how we can be able to attain that figure.

“But even if we are unable to attain that figure, we will see how we can be able to recalibrate it in a manner that we will have most of those things that His Excellency intends to achieve get done in the next five years,” he assured.