Centre for Community Empowerment and Poverty Eradication (CCEPE), an NGO, has said that it has spent N30 million on development projects in Kwara in the past five years.

The state Programme Officer, AbdulRahman Ayuba, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ilorin on Monday.

He said that the aim of the organisation, a partner of ActionAid Nigeria, was to empower the poor and marginalised people in the society to demand and achieve their rights.

He said that the NGO had intervened in development projects in 18 communities in Kwara since 2007 using the “human rights-based approach to development.’’

“In these communities, we work with a population of about 45,000 people and farmer groups; and since we started our intervention activities in March 2007, we have been able to record a lot of successes.

“We have sunk eight hand-pump bore holes, constructed a block of four classrooms with a headmaster’s office and a store in the Ipetu community of Asa Local Government Area of the state.

“Also, we built a health centre with a VIP toilet at Gatte community in Kaima Local Government of the state at the cost of N2.5 million,’’ he said.

Ayuba told NAN that the NGO had supplied labour-saving equipment, including palm oil milling machines and kernel cracker with a Leyster engine for women groups in the Budo Aro community of Asa Local Government.

He said that a block of two classrooms was also constructed in the Ogodo community of Asa at the cost of N2.2 million, noting that the achievements were part of efforts to eradicate poverty in the area.