Former Abia State governor and Senator representing Abia North Senatorial District in National Assembly, Orji Uzor Kalu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, on Thursday promised to redouble his efforts on constituency projects for the benefit of his people.

Senator Kalu, who is the chairman, Senate Committee on Privatisation, spoke after receiving an award plaque on Constituency Development which he won for the third time as overall best among 108 of his colleagues at this year’s edition of the Senate Press Corps, SPC Award ceremony held on Monday at the NICON Luxury Hotel, Abuja.

While thanking the Press Corps for considering him worthy to win the award again, he said his goal remains in intensifying his delivery of additional democratic dividends to his constituents as well as sponsoring people-oriented bills and motions.

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On the 2025 budget, Senator Kalu expressed gratitude to President Bola Tinubu for the lion budgetary allocation to defence, but however, emphasised the need to scale up manufacturing and agriculture.

He said: “I thank the President for considering defence. If we don’t keep peace I don’t think we can do anything. It means we will do a lot to go back to agriculture.

“I would like to see that this Budget will improve the Banks of Industry and agriculture to add stimulus back to the economy. If we don’t stimulate the economy we can’t bring down the Dollar to Naira.

“Production and export must be key and we have to pay attention to favour manufacturers, we should see we can redirect some of this budget to favour manufacturers and support development banks so that we can go back to favour manufacturers and support development banks.”

The lawmaker, who was unavoidably absent at the ceremony due to pressing legislative duties was presented with the award by the leadership of the SPC led by its chairman, Mr. James Itodo and the newly elected chairman, Mr. Taiye Odewale.

The brief ceremony took place at the National Assembly office of the Lawmaker during which a brief citation of Kalu and his achievements were read.

The citation detailed Kalu’s trajectory in business and politics, especially the list of critical infrastructure projects and human empowerment he executed in his senatorial district since his election in 2019.