Former Abia State Commissioner for Finance, Obinna Oriaku, has revealed that Governor Alex Otti’s administration is yet to access the $115 million African Development Bank (AfDB) loan approved in June 2023 for a major road rehabilitation project in Abia State.
The AfDB loan is part of a larger financing package totaling $263.8 million, which includes a $100 million AfDB loan, a $15 million Canada-African Development Bank Climate Fund loan, and a $125 million co-financing loan from the Islamic Development Bank. The project aims to improve roads, erosion control infrastructure, and solid waste management facilities in Umuahia and Aba.
Oriaku in an interview with FLO FM criticized Governor Otti’s decision to base 50% of the 2025 Abia State budget on loans, including the AfDB deal, stressing that it was wrong to do so without accessing the loan facility.
“The budget is predicated on assumptions that we don’t know. Unfortunately, one of the areas I feel disappointed and embarrassed about is in the area of IGR. You don’t run a budget based on factors out of your control.
One of the things that made Former Governor Okezie Ikpeazu fail on Port Harcourt Road was hoping on AfDB loan. They waited on it in 2021 until they went out of government and couldn’t carry out the project.
This government has started waiting on loans. They are predicating 50 per cent of the budget on external and internal loans, and one of it is the $115 AfDB loan that is supposed to enter the account. They waited for it last year, and they are still waiting, I am praying it comes because that’s my sweat, I defended that loan before the National Assembly.” He revealed.
The Former Commissioner advised the government to show their percentage performance on Internally Generated Revenue, IGR.
