Demola Akinyemi
29 December 2008
Ilorin — THE Governor of Kwara State, Dr Bukola Saraki, has urged the people of the state to brace up for hard times next year by making use of every opportunity that would be provided by the government to expand the economy, saying the new year would be very tough in the state.
Gov. Saraki, who spoke with newsmen in an interview in Ilorin shortly after he announced a budget proposal of N72.2 billion for the next fiscal year, also pleaded with the Federal Government to enforce the implementation of the cassava five percent on all the factories in order to create more jobs for Nigerians.
In his message to the people in the incoming year, he said, "We are breaking new grounds in 2009, in terms of expansion in terms of the projects we have been doing and the ones we will start, we will create opportunities for the people to survive because it's going to be very tough next year.
"2009 is going to be tough, we should be ready to tighten our belt. On our part, we should be able to reduce and run an efficient government as much as possible. We are also going to invest in a lot of sectors, we should take advantages in some of the jobs we hope to create from the industrialisation, there are going to be opportunities, if the cargo takes off, there will be opportunities for all those who are already in business because there will be more people coming into the state and it will create activities in those areas."he stressed
To create more jobs for the people in the private sector, the governor who wanted the Federal Government to initiate a policy that would support local production of rice in Nigeria, said, "We want the Federal Government to review some policies, particularly this cassava five per cent policy is being abused. It has not been implemented, if government alone can implement that and ensure that all factories implement that five per cent. We will have jobs, so even if government revenue is going down if there are other opportunities for people they will not feel it."
'The federal government, he added also need to review some of our policies on milk products saying, "there should also be policy to support rice production locally, we have to sit down together and tighten our belts there are opportunities, but its not going t o be as easy as this outgoing year."He explained that "the advantage we have in kwara is that we have a sound economic base.
Focus has to be shifted from government, let people be creative, let them be self employed, we will have micro finance bank to loan people money to do business.Saraki announced the resolve of his government to improve on Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) drive to enable it cushion the effect of the crude oil price fall. H e equally stressed the need for the nation to put in place right policies that would promote agro-allied industryThe 2009 budget proposal shows that road development got he largest share of N10.09 billion. This is closely followed by education with N5.9bn, Agricultural development, N4.9 billion, Water supply, N4.085 B among others.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 Vanguard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
