The newly-appointed Enugu State Commissioner for Land and Urban Development, Engr. Prince Lawrence Ezeh, FNSE, COREN, resumed at his duty post Friday, with a promise to work assiduously to ensure that the State attains greater economic stability.
The Commissioner, who arrived the ministry at exactly 4:.27pm, was ushered in by the entire staff who were visibly cheerful and elated as they expressed their desire to cooperate with him while in the ministry.
He was immediately escorted into the building by the Permanent Secretary, Rev. Sr. Josephine Aniagolu and other directors.
At a meeting with the staff shortly after his resumption, the Commissioner told them that in line with Governor Peter Mbah’s mandate, he challenged staff of the Ministry to perform their duties selflessly with integrity and to see their work as service to the State.
“With the Governor’s marching order to expand the State’s IGR, I urge you to work hard to exceed the target. That is one way to justify the confidence that he reposed in all of you” , he said.
“In line with Governor’s vision, the State must generate revenue that can settle workers’ salaries without waiting for the monthly Federal Allocation, His Excellency the Governor has directed all the revenue-generating agencies to prioritise the compelling need to have more revenue for the state to ensure the state’s overall economic growth.”
He charged them to deliberate on strategies to shore up the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from the ministry by leveraging on the Governor’s planned digitalization of the ministry with a view to stimulating the economy and good governance in the State.
He said: “We have very serious revenue challenges and it is up to us to make sure we shore up the revenue base of the State. The Governor has a lot of confidence that we can do this if we work together. You are working for the Governor and at the end of the day you are working for the benefit of Ndi Enugu,”
The new Commissioner also promised to establish a sustainable land information system that will ease up the means of acquisition of land rights, structures and procedures of registration, economic empowerment as well as poverty eradication.
He promised to operate a smooth land administration system that is people-friendly and one that is capable of enhancing and promoting the socio-economic growth of the State.
For the purpose of centralizing and consolidating system, he promised to digitalize the ministry whereby existing title documents are secured and archived into data base that will ensure proper indexing of documents.
He said with the deployment of the planned-digitalization on land system and urban development, preparation of Certificates of Occupancy (CofOs) will be made very transparent, devoid of corruption and also made very clear to people.
His words “I will work very well with you and especially the Permanent Secretary to ensure that His Excellency, Governor Peter Mbah succeeds.”
Responding on behalf of the staff, the Permanent Secretary appreciated the Commissioner’s vision and assured him of his full support.
Earlier in her welcome remarks, the Permanent Secretary had told the Commissioner that, “We are also ready to give you all the support to succeed”.
The ministry officials warmly welcomed all the commissioner’s new initiatives and gave their full support for their implementation.
They also assured the Commissioner of their commitment to Governor Peter Mbah administration.