Mercy Obot
The Chairman of Akwa Ibom Environmental Protection and Waste Management Agency, Mr Prince Ikim has called on Akwa Ibom citizens aspiring to venture into recycling business to partner with the agency to aid in alleviating unemployment in the state as well as generate internal revenue for the state government.
He made the call while defending the Agency's 2021 budgetary estimate before the Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly Committee on Finance and Appropriation on Tuesday.
According to the AKSEPWMA boss, " We are open to Akwa Ibom citizens who are ready to venture into recycling business. The Agency is making arrangements to partner with companies and persons on waste recycling business so that the Agency can generate revenue for the state government as well as uplifts unemployment in the state.
"Right now we are employing over 6,000 persons on our payroll and we are ready to employ close to 20,000 Akwa Ibom indigenes who are ready to do business with the Agency, " he said.
Speaking further, Prince Ikim said that the establishment had made plans to partner with some companies who were ready to covert the wastes in Akwa Ibom State to a valuable substance like fertilizer but they were affected by the COVID 19 pandemic.
"On the issue of recycling, we were working on the process but it was affected by the global pandemic and this also had an effect on the revenue generation of the agency. We had made partnership with some companies who were suppose to take our waste and turn it into fertilizer. "
Fielding question on why dump sites are being kept in the midst of town, the Chairman stressed that these sites were temporary sites and plans were made by the Agency to evacuate the wastes to the permanent site at Odiok Itam but the roads are not motorable.
"We have a permanent dump site at Odiok Itam in Itu Local Government Area and the only problem we have is the inability to access the dilapidated roads that leads to the site. Once the road is motorable, we will relocate. We have also started partnering with some companies that will convert wastes at the temporary sites to wealth."
While briefing the Committee, Prince Ikim said that his Agency has proposed for year 2021, the total sum of N585,299,710.00 as Capital Expenditure, while Total Revenue for year 2021 still remains N520,000,000.00.
"The proposed 2021 Capital Budget Provision of the Agency had been drastically reduced from N1,500,000,000.00 to N585,000,000.00 on the 2021 Budget proposals presented by His Excellency, Governor Udom Emmanuel to the House of Assembly on the 20th October, 2020 . The sum of N409,000,000 moved to Reserved Votes for Recurrent Budget Estimates of year 2021".
According to the Agency's Chairman, enormous challenges which are faced by the Agency include, insufficient furniture for office use; insufficient accommodation for staff of the Agency and Board Members; no functional vehicles for effective supervision and revenue collection; Lack of compactors, machines/equipments, receptacles/dumpsters for effective waste management which results in the Agency's incurring huge debts on hiring of tools and equipment to carry out waste management programmes.
However, Ikim lamented on negative effect the COVID 19 outbreak had on the agency's generated revenue. According to him, out of N520,000,000.00 revenue earmarked for the Agency, only N3,864,983 was generated as at October 2020.
He mentioned factors that actually caused a setback revenue to the agency and this included, the tax relief by the state govt due to the pandemic, Ministry of Environment insisting on internal generating revenue through their agents, court cases that were left over from the Ministry of Environment, the Akwa Ibom State Internal Revenue Service integrated demand notice among others.
Responding, the Chairman, Committee on Appropriations and Finance, Rt. Hon. Uduak Odudoh applauded Prince Ikim and the members of the Agency for their commitments in keeping Akwa Ibom State clean and urged them to partner with the Chairman in Committee of Environment so that a law can be made to add value to the Agency.
Others that also appeared before the Committee on Appropriation and Finance include Akwa Ibom State Independent Electoral Commission,AKISEC and Office of Accountant General and Ministry of Finance.
Members of the Committee present during the exercise were; Rt. Hon. Uduak Odudoh- Chairman (Ikot Abasi/Eastern Obolo); Rt. Hon. Effiong Bassey - Vice Chairman (Oron/Udung Uko); Deputy Speaker, Princess Felicia Bassey; Rt. Hon. Emmanuel Bassey (Ini); Rt. Hon. Mark Esset (Nsit Atai); Hon. (Barr.) Victor Ekwere (Mkpat Enin);Barr. Hon. Otobong Bob; Hon. Ifiok Udoh (Nsit Ibom); Hon. Godwin Ekpo (Ibiono Ibom) among other lawmakers.
#AKSBudgetDefense2021
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