Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq of Kwara State on Thursday revealed that his administration would invest more on social intervention programme by releasing N1 billion soft loans to market women and traders to fight poverty and grow economy.
The governor, who spoke at a breakfast meeting with journalists in Ilorin, the state capital said his administration would improve on Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), key into small scale businesses.
He said, “Under the Kwara State Social Investment Programme ( KWASSIP), we plan to spend N1 billion to help traders and artisans with soft loans. We are looking at roughly 1000 beneficiaries of such soft loan. We can not watch while our people are suffering, we have to do something in that regard.
“We have prioritised and will always prioritise water, education, health, road and general infrastructure. Agriculture is also a priority and we are looking at ensuring that a lot is done is the area of agro processing because of our comparative advantages. We want to completely change the story of this state and our plans revolve around just that, beginning from the budget review.”
According to him, the World Bank has indicated interest in supporting the scheme which is the first of such state-led initiative modelled after the Federal Government Social Investment Programme which components included TraderMoni, MarketMoni, and FarmerMoni, among other supports for small and medium scale businesses.
“We are targeting 1000 beneficiaries under our own scheme. We are working with the Federal Government agencies that handled the market moni and trader moni.
“They will help to train our own officials. And we are also working with the Bank of Industry which will do the disbursement to allow for transparency and ensure that the money gets to the real beneficiaries.”
Abdulrazaq had while lamenting the high level of rots inherited from the past administration that cut across all sectors, he urges Kwarans to be patient with the present administration as he even seeks support from Kwarans, so as together move the state forward.
The Governor, however, disclosed that commissioners who will work with him in piloting the state affairs will be appointed and sennt lists of nominees to the State House of Assembly next week.
SIKIRAT SHEHU, Ilorin
