Hyacinth Alia, the Benue State Governor, has granted full financial autonomy to all the 23 LGAs in the state.
Gov Alia, while disclosing this on Tuesday at the opening of a two-day workshop organised by the Bureau of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, in conjunction with Timarage Nigeria Limited, for chairmen and members of the local government interim executives in the state, said his administration had also mapped out strategic projects and programmes for execution and implementation in all the LGAs.
The governor also said by the time the projects and programmes were completed, the chequered history of the rural areas in the state would be completely reversed.
Alia explained, “I am happy to state that my administration has given its full blessing to the autonomy of our local governments. Funds due to the local governments will be prompt. We are, therefore, committed to the growth and development of the system and have outlined adequate plans to open up the rural areas to enable rural economies to thrive.”
Alia, therefore, appealed to all the LG committees to intensify efforts towards increasing their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to boost their capacity to provide for the welfare of their people while urging them to ensure they remained close to their people and also to uphold accountability, integrity and transparency in their work.