Umuahia — The Abia State Government and the European Union (EU) have identified three key areas of partnership for the intervention programmes of the development partner in the state.

The areas of interest considered as priority by Governor Alex Otti going by the policy direction of his administration are hydro power, circular economy and human development.

He assured the EU of his government's commitment to the partnership when he received the EU delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, led by the Head of Section, Green and Digital Economy, Mrs. Inga Stefanowicz.

"Some of the priority projects, are also of importance to me. We had earlier on assumption of office declared a state of emergency on them," he said.

Otti told the EU delegation that on assumption of office "we found that there was a lot of areas requiring attention" but decided to prioritise the "areas of high impact including environmental sanitation, security, healthcare and education".

He stated that the three areas of intervention listed by the EU "are like music to my ears because they are projects that we have started even before this visit and all we want you to do is just to plug in".

The Abia governor said the 30 percent counterpart funding demanded by the EU would not be a problem even though "we already have done more than that (and) even if it doesn't count, we can also put the money down".

He, therefore, assured the EU delegation that Abia State Government would live up to its responsibility of providing the required 30 percent funding for the commencement of the intervention projects.

Otti expressed optimism that the partnership between Abia and the EU would bear the desired fruits for the benefit of the people of the state.

The leader of the delegation, Mrs. Inga Stefanowicz, had earlier explained that they were in Abia to seek partnership with the state government in some key priority areas for intervention.

She said that Abia State was selected as one of the beneficiary states for partnership with the EU, adding that the state government was expected to commit counterpart fund of 30 percent to seal the deal.