‘We’ve Delivered Democratic Dividends To Rural Communities’

Lagos Commissioner for Rural Development, Prince Lanre Balogun, has said that the state government had been able to deliver the dividends of democracy to rural communities in the last four years.

Balogun, who gave an account of his stewardship, said several rural communities had benefitited from government’s gesture in the area of food security, rural electrification, provision of portable water and roads for economic growth and improvement in the living condition of the rural communities.

“In the last four years, there is hardly a place in the rural part of the state that cannot boast of potable water and electricity,” he said.

In the area of rural water and sanitation, Balogun said government had provided 49 communities across the state with rural water and sanitation programme in the last one year.

He stated that out of the 49 communities, 45 benefited in the department’s water programme, while the remaining four were provided with sanitation facilities.

On rural electrification, the commissioner said in the last one year, the state government, through the ministry, had intervened in improvement of electricity network to various community development associations (CDAs) in the three senatorial districts of Lagos State.

“This include distribution of 300 oil immersed distribution transformers to various communities across the state; provision of 28 rural electrification projects and maintenance/upgrading of 119 solar powered projects were executed where national grid does not cover.

“Electrification of rural areas has multiplier effect on the people, thereby enhancing the socio-economic development of the citizens in these areas, while it functions as a catalyst for agricultural, industrial and commercial development,” he said.

Balogun said with rural electrification, it had helped to replace more costly energy sources, such as kerosene, for domestic use and diesel for generators, thereby reducing the effect of climate change on the environment.

“Its impact in the area of security cannot be over emphasised and it has also reduced migration from rural to urban areas as people can now do business in the rural areas,” he added.