Benue fails to provide N195m for CBN’s centre

Benue State is at the verge of losing the hosting right of the North Cen­tral Zone of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Entrepreneur­ship Develop-ment Centre (EDC), Makurdi, due to its inabil-ity to provide funds for the completion of the struc­tural works at the centre in line with the tripartite agree­ment for its take-off.

The state, which won the hosting right of the centre through competitive bid­ding with other states in the North Central Zone, is to provide the infrastructure, sponsor the start-up kits for her participants while the CBN is to equip the work­shops and laboratories, and thereafter hand it over to the state in 2017.

The Chairman, House Standing Committee on Industry, Trade and Invest­ments, Mr. Richard Ujege, who made the disclosure in a lead debate on the re­port of his Committee’s inspection visit to the Cen­tre, noted that if funds are not made available for the completion of the structural works, the Centre may be relocated to other States in the Zone who have since in­dicated in-terest in hosting the Centre.