Eight hundred and thirty-three Akwa Ibom indigenes from Abak-Etim Ekpo-Ika Federal Constituency have received their part of the N5.1 billion ARISE Grant earmarked by Governor Umo Eno for farmers, traders, craftsmen, equipment support, and ARISE MSME support schemes.
The breakdown of the disbursements includes N111 million to 178 crop, fish, and livestock farmers; N176 million to 442 traders of various categories; N30 million to six Micro, Small, and medium-scale enterprises operators; and equipment support running into hundreds of millions to 198 craftsmen. There are also six beneficiaries of minibuses and three car beneficiaries.
Speaking at the maiden Town Hall Meeting/Empowerment ceremony at the Abak Township Stadium, the State Governor identified micro, small and medium scale entrepreneurs as the engine that powers sustainable economic growth and restated his administration’s resolve to reach out to them both in the city and at remote locations across the rural communities to empower them and enhance their growth.
“We want to support small and medium-scale enterprises. These small businesses are the engine of the economy. These are the small traders, farmers, and those people that have their handiwork. Those are the people who help the economy; they employ two or three people and provide food for their homes. We must support them. I know what you are doing, and we will keep supporting you,” Governor Eno stated.
Reaffirming his commitment to rural development, the Governor maintained that he would be satisfied to take governance to the rural communities and leave enduring legacies in their lives and environments.
This, he explained, was the reason he chose to embark on painstaking profiling of potential beneficiaries to avoid urban-based enlistment of portfolio traders and farmers, attesting to the utmost transparency and due diligence of the selection process and that the beneficiaries were real and verifiable, while also admonishing beneficiaries to make good use of the grant with the consciousness that it is a one-off opportunity.
“No more will we sit in Uyo and write names of people we do not know. We have profiled all these people. If you check the brochure or go to Akwa Ibom State Government website, you’ll see all their names, their phone numbers and their addresses so you can go and verify whether they got the monies or not.
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“We have visited their businesses; we have visited their farms, and they are not portfolio business people, so we have decided to come to their Federal Constituency to disburse the money, and we will do same to others. But one thing is, once we support you, your name is captured on the portal, so you cannot get it again. It will be some other people’s turn. So use yours well.
“I want to be remembered as the Governor who brought governance to the rural areas. I want to be remembered as the governor who interacted with the rural communities so they, too, can smell the fragrance of government. They can have good schools, good roads, good hospitals. They can have water, they can have necessities of life.”
The Governor commended the cooperation of the leadership of Abak Federal Constituency, especially for working collaboratively to produce a unified needs document, maintaining that the document carried the essence of the day’s event.
The Speaker, Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Elder Udeme Otong, leading stakeholders of Abak, Etim Ekpo and Ika Local Government Areas to make a presentation of their charter of needs, called for a motion which was moved by, and seconded by Hon. Mfon Idung and Rt. Hon. Aniekan Umanah, respectively, that Abak Federal Constituency will unanimously support Governor Umo Eno to continue in office beyond 2027 in appreciation of his goodness to the people of the area.
In their various goodwill messages, a chieftain of the APC and Provost of Federal College of Health Sciences, Jos, Prof. Nkereuwem Etukudo, former Legal Adviser of the PDP, Emmanuel Enoidem, SAN and former Attorney General of the State, Uwemedimo Nwoko, SAN, lauded the Governor’s integrity in keeping to his promise to the electorate and assured him of continuous support of the people of Abak, Etim Ekpo and Ika.
Interacting with Government House Correspondents, some beneficiaries of the grant, Inemesit Abraham and Semfon Dickson, expressed heartfelt gratitude over the grant, describing it as an apolitical, well-targeted empowerment programme. They noted that God is currently governing the state and using Governor Umo Eno as a human vessel.
