By Emma Una

CALABAR— AFRICAN Development Bank, AfDB,  the World Bank and the  Federal Government in collaboration with the Cross River State government are to fund the construction of 480 kilometres  rural roads across 18 local government areas of the state in 2017.

Governor Ben Ayade

Engineer Charles Okongor, Coordinator of the Cross River Rural Access and Mobility Project, CR-RAMP, who made this known  yesterday   in Calabar, said   N38.4 billion would be invested in the construction of the roads under the second phase of the Cross River Ramp project.

According to him: “Preparations and studies for conceptual design of the roads have reached advanced stage and I can assure that within the next few weeks work    would start on those roads. The mandate of my agency is to construct 480 kilometres of all season rural access roads to connect rural communities to bring out food produce to boost    rural economy and reduce rural-urban migration and harvest loss from Obanliku-Bakassi. CR-RAMP has reduced post harvest losses from 30 percent in 2010 to 1.6 percent in 2015 and also  reduced travel time for evacuation of  farm produce from 2 hours to 10  minutes.”

He commended the state governor, Senator Ben Ayade for releasing the state share of funds for the project.