World Bank lifts Edo Technical College
The Government Science and Technical College (GSTC) Benin City, Edo State has worn a new look, thanks to the World Bank assisted State Employment and Expenditure for Results (SEEFOR), writes IGBAUGBA EHIGIMETOR.
The new face of Edo-owned Government Science and Technical College (GSTC) Benin City, the Edo State capital, was made possible through the intervention of the World Bank assisted State Employment and Expenditure for Results (SEEFOR).
Before the intervention, the college, established in 1973, had its nine existing steel frame buildings in a state of great disrepair.
Completed in 2019, the school’s new workshop was installed with the state-of-the-art equipment.
Key infrastructure interventions include: a dedicated 33kv line from the Benin North Electrical Sub-station, which draws power from the NIPP Ihonvbor/Azura Power Complex and a 45mbps fibre optic cable.
The institution is fully networked with a site-wide fibre optic system, backup power from generators, off-grid renewable energy (solar power), rainwater harvesting and an integrated site-wide potable water system.
GSTC Principal, Mr Frederick Onaiwu, described the college as a “new pride to parents.” According to him, in the past, management used to beg students to pick admission forms into the college.
“It was a school seen as a place for those who could not do well in conventional secondary schools.
“The sorry state of the school did not matter. In the absence of relevant facilities, the students were taught practicals in abstract. The dilapidated buildings that would welcome a first time visitor were eye sore.
“The staff strength of the school depleted to 39, as no new staff member was employed when old ones retired or left for greener pastures.
“But today, thanks to this intervention, we have a new story to tell; our enrolment has shut up to 1600.”
The SEEFOR intervention has also changed the narrative of the Edo State Procurement Agency. The agency is a regulatory body that ensures the application of fair, competitive, transparent and value for money standards and practices for the procurement of public assets and services.
Chief Executive Office of the agency set up in 2012, Mr Henry Idogun, said the agency lacked basic office equipment before the intervention.
Idogun said through SEEFOR office equipment and work tools such as furniture, laptops and other accessories were provided.
There were interventions in 12 critical areas that have made the job of the agency seamless, Idogun said.
“Without equipment there was no how we could have made this place, which used to be a guest house function like an office. The first set of equipment donated by SEEFOR helped us a lot, it is unquantifiable what they did.
“Of note, however, is staff training that the interventionist agency have sponsored both within and outside the shores of the country,” he said.
A beneficiary of one of such training programmes, Mr James Owolabi, said: “Before the intervention, we observed that there were certain knowledge we needed, but the economy of the state then made it impossible.
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“However, the SEEFOR made this possible and the knowledge we have so acquired has made some of us resource persons in-house.”
The Edo Board of Internal Revenue, said through SEEFOR’s intervention the revenue generating agency was able to automate its collections in the informal sector.
The board chairman, Igbinidu Inneh, who spoke through the Corporate Affairs Manager, Mr Courage Eboigbe, said this led to the increase of revenue from N20 million monthly to N250 million.
He said besides assisting the revenue agency with 750 POS devices, the project also provided them with laptops, computers and mono-printers.
“Before SEEFOR’s intervention, our method of revenue collection was manual and this created leakages for the non-state actors to take advantage of, but with SEEFOR, we have automated the method of revenue collection.
“We have benefitted from the project immensely, though we are not where we ought to be, but we have gotten to an appreciate level through the intervention,” he said.
Mr Godwin Owie commended SEEFOR for its intervention in providing a town hall for his community, Evborhan community, near Benin.
He said building a town hall for the community has always been their desire, but the fund to execute it had made it impossible to achieve until the agency’s intervention.
SEEFOR’s State Coordinator, Mr Toju Onaiwu, who spoke on the success of the project, said SEEFOR has no doubt met its mandate.
He said the project has impacted directly on the lives of 7,532 farmers in Edo, through the SEEFOR/FADAMA III collaboration.
He said it was achieved through 437 SEEFOR/FADAMA III users’ groups across the 18 local government areas of Edo State, adding that through the SEEFOR project, no fewer than 16,860 youths in Edo have been engaged since the inception of the interventionist project in July 2013.
Besides the engagement of 16,860 youths as beneficiaries, the same figure, he said, was engaged in money management and entrepreneurship skills for self-reliance.
He added that under the component A1, designed to generate employment for youths through small competitive public works, 180 roads of about 199km, were constructed under the scheme.
Onaiwu said the SEEFOR made tremendous impact in the area of education, especially as it concerns technical and vocational education.
“In the component A2, this is designed to increase access, and improve the quality of skills acquisition and development for youth empowerment through existing vocational and technical training institutions.
“The project has disbursed grants to eight Technical, Vocational and Agricultural Training Institutions (TVAT) across Edo State.
“We have also provided workshops and laboratories to Government Science and Technical College, Benin.
“We have given starter packs to over 20 students in skills acquisition centres and have also supported innovation hub to help youths achieve their dream of becoming self-reliance.
“Over 2,970 students were also trained on technical and vocational skills between 2015 and June 2019, while 104 teachers were trained and deployed to TVAT schools,” he said.
Onaiwu added that successes were recorded in component A3 of the project, designed to increase access of communities to socio-economic services through provision of Grants for Community Driven Development (CDD) micro projects.
Under the component, he said, grants were disbursed to the Community and Social Development Programme (CSDP) and FADAMA III of the SEEFOR project for implementation of sub projects in selected communities.
According to him, under the programme, CSDP completed 170 micro projects such as electrification, water scheme, town halls, market shops with 137,116 direct beneficiaries in 130 communities across the state.
The National Project Coordinator (NPC), Dr Greg Onu, said because of the success of the project in the four pilot states of Delta, Edo, Rivers and Bayelsa, more states of the federation have indicated interest to be part of the phase 2 of the project.
Onu said SEEFOR, a World Bank sponsored project, with support grants from EU, became effective in 2013 and will wind up in September 2020.
The objective, he said, was to enhance opportunities for employment and access to socio-economic services, and improve the public expenditure management system in the participating states.
- Igbaugba Ehigimetor, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
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