Health
GOV. Simon Lalong of Plateau says his administration established the Plateau Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (PLASMEDA) and the State Disability Commission to compliment the initiatives of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Lalong stated this in an address at a roundtable on the role of sub-national governments in achieving the SDGs and the Paris Agreement on climate change at the sidelines of the 74th United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The Northern Governors’ Forum Chairman in a statement by his Director of Press and Public Affairs, Dr Simon Macham, said that Plateau was making serious progress in many of the SDGs.
He said that his administration in the same vein also established Plateau State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Plateau Rural and Urban Water Agency and an ICT Agency.
The governor said the new agencies had impacted on Plateau economy, and that PLASMEDA alone created as many as 50,000 jobs.
He said that the development had removed unemployed youths from the streets of the state, thereby reducing their temptation to engage in crime and other nefarious activities.
He said that he understood the challenge of implementing these crucial programmes as huge.
Lalong, however, said that he was determined to find solutions within and outside the country to ensure that the SDGs were fully implemented for the benefit of the people of Plateau.
According to him, various initiatives of his administration are tailored toward attaining SDGs that are spread across education, health, human capital development, job creation and infrastructure development.
He said that one of the goals central to his administration was goal 16 which sought to promote peaceful and inclusive society for sustainable development as well as provide access to justice for all to build effective accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
“When I came into office, I was confronted with a state that was ravaged by crisis and we had to settle down to create a peaceful society.
‘This saw us establishing the Peace Building Agency which is the first in the country and one that has become a model for peace initiatives in the country.
“Today, Plateau State has regained its place as the home of peace and tourism and there is more dialogue and conflict resolution and prevention among the various ethnic and religious groups in the state.
“With the return of peace, we have also been able to focus on infrastructure development where we have completed most of the abandoned projects and embarked on new ones that are spread to all parts of the state.
“There are roads schools, hospitals and other development projects ongoing in the 17 local governments of the state,” he said.
On the implementation of the Paris Climate Change Agreement, the governor said Plateau Government aligned to Nigeria’s nationally determined contributions to the objectives of the agreement through mitigative and adaptive Actions.
He said the government was working on reducing the emission of carbon dioxide, increasing the use of energy-efficient appliances and machines and increasing the ratio of renewable energy in our energy programme in the state.
He explained that the renewable energy strategy and a rural electrification plan would energise over 550 communities using Solar Mini-Grid Electrification.
“The state has already commissioned the first two pilot plants supplying 100Kw to two communities in the state.
“We have also identified 28 potential Small Hydro-Power points with generating capacities ranging from 1MW to 60MW in the state,” he said.
NAN
-Sep 29, 2019 @12:20 GMT |
Tags: disability commission established in response to SDGs initiatives Lalong says PLASMEDA
