By Emeka Anaeto, Business Editor
Barely two and half years in office, the Executive Governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, has established his regime in the state as one to be noted for breathtaking infrastructural transformation. This is also at the backdrop of his outstanding initiatives, policies and executions across several sectors including healthcare, education, job creation and general economic reset of the state.
Infrastructure development is a key driver for progress across the African continent and a critical enabler for productivity and sustainable economic growth. It contributes significantly to human development, poverty reduction, and the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Moreover, it enables advancement and improvement in various aspects of life, including living standards, job styles, behavioural patterns (morals, values, and principles), technology, education, and patterns of relationship.
By traversing this course, society strives to innovate and use its resources, patterns, techniques, and knowledge from the past, present, and future as it modernizes. Infrastructure plays a key role in economic growth and poverty reduction.
Conversely, the lack of infrastructure affects productivity and raises production and transaction costs, which hinders growth by reducing businesses’ competitiveness and governments’ ability to pursue economic and social development policies.
Globally, governments worldwide are directly involved in modernization and infrastructural growth, which act as catalysts for the development of a nation, state, or community. Impressively, Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State, a former Central Bank Governor, who is the fifth Governor of Anambra State under the present democratic dispensation, has multiple results to show in his quest to build a new Anambra that would be unrivaled in modern infrastructure and socio-economic development.
With various projects being commissioned, constructed and others ongoing, in the area of roads, hospitals, schools, innovation centres, amusement parks, technology advancements, power supply, and empowerment, among others, Governor Soludo’s regime is set to becoming a shining example of leadership across Nigeria.
In the health sector, contracts were awarded for the supply and installation of equipment at the Anambra State College of Health Technology, Obosi, while primary healthcare centres have been upgraded, and five new general hospitals of world-class built with skilled personnel. In addition, Anambra state has employed 1,000 health workers, including doctors, nurses, consultants, pharmacists, and medical laboratory technicians, and introduced telemedicine for efficient healthcare solutions.
Due to his unwavering commitment to improving the healthcare sector, Soludo emerged as the best-performing governor in primary healthcare delivery in Nigeria. Anambra State received a total of $1,200,000, for the awards, $500,000 for the feat in the Southeast, and $700,000 for overall excellence in the Primary Healthcare Leadership Challenge. Soludo, who is a labour-friendly governor not only paid the minimum wage to workers, he adjusted pensions upward to give pensioners in Anambra State higher take-home.
He has equipped 60 secondary school laboratories with the required Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) equipment, and increased the operational budgets for primary and secondary schools to ensure they deliver the quality education promised.
Also, twenty-two (22) secondary schools are being transformed into smart schools with many more to follow in the new year, setting a standard for what an ideal school should be. Free education policy has been extended up to Senior Secondary School Year 3 (SS3), and the State has recruited an additional 3,115 teachers, increasing the number to 8,115.
The post Soludo’s solutions in Anambra appeared first on Vanguard News.
