THE province of Macuata used up $4.2million of the total $8.6m distributed over the past four years by the Northern Development Program.
Speaking at the Macuata Provincial Council meeting yesterday, NDP manager Waisale Tuidama said most of the $8.6m funding went to small business operators in Macuata.
He said small businesses created 4503 job opportunities for people in Vanua Levu over the past four years.
Mr Tuidama said the success of the NDP program proved that research and surveys done by groups which claimed 42 per cent of people living in the north were poor was wrong. He told the meeting such findings were false because the results on the ground with NDP projects showed improved livelihoods in rural areas as well.