Kwara spends N1.5bn on youths, petty traders, vulnerables
By Dele Moses, Ilorin
Kwara State Government has within the first quarter of this year spent N1.5bn to relieve the less previleged of hardship and at the same time promote economic activities in the state.
The government did this just as it is also working on how to mitigate the effect of the ‘Japa’ syndrome on the health sector in Kwara.
The N1.5bn expenditure was done through the government’s social investment programme created to aid the youths, the less privileged and the vulnerables in the state.
Acting General Manager of Kwara State Social Investment Programme (KWASIP), Dr Olayinka Tejini, made this known at the interministerial press briefing for the first quarter of 2025 on Tuesday.
Tejini said Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq created the programme in 2019 and that since then the programme had improved the lots of many people and boosted the state’s economy.
He explained that the programme was created in three major legs which he said are in the form of cash support for the poorest, creation of jobs through small scale entreprises for the youths and boosting Kwara’s economy through promotion of an entrepreneural society.
The KWASIP boss said within the first quarter of 2025 the government had approved a safety net for both the skilled and the unskilled in which 20, 000 people comprising the youths and the vulnerables benefited N20, 000 each.
He stated that the government had also approved N20, 000 each for 20, 000 petty traders to aid the growth of their trade.
Tejini disclosed that also within the quarter the government organised a household support sum under which 7, 000 households benefited N100,000 each.
He explained that all the beneficiaries were favoured without regard to their political leanings, constituencies or localities.
Executive Secretary of Kwara State Hospital Management Board, Dr Abdulrahman Malik, disclosed that there was acute shortage of medical doctors in the state-owned hospitals.
He said that due to the ‘Japa’ syndrome doctors do not want to take up appointment with the state government even when the government is ready to recruit them.
Tejini explained that while between 180 and 200 doctors are required in the government service only 89 of them are available in the service.
He said the available doctors only recently became 89 from 86 when three, who earlier left the service, returned after the government improved salaries for doctors.
The hospital board boss said the government had been trying to attract doctors to the state service with improved salaries and facilities that could encourage them to stay especially in the rural areas where many of them do not want to go.
Tejini also disclosed that the government has also introduced intern nurse programme for the training of nurses who would replace those who migrated for greener pastures.
Speaking on the activities of his own ministry, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Afeez Alabi, said within the first quarter, the government had engaged in collaborations and synergies with agencies to boost agricultural activities in the state.
Alabi said that farmers in the state would benefit from the collaborations as he also assured that farm imputs that may be provided by the government would reach the farmers.
He said the government had embarked on a programme of converting unused land in any campus of the state-owned tertiary institution into a farm land to provide opportunity of agricultural business for the schools and at the same time prevent encroachment on the land by outsiders.
In her own speech, the commissioner for Business Innovation and Technology, Damilola Yusuf-Adelodun, said government had within the first quarter intensified efforts on the ongoing renovation of Kwara Hotel and that the renovation with 172 rooms and 4 charlet rooms of the hotel would be completed by the end of this year.
The latest renovation of the 50-year old hotel which had been renovated by some previous governments is reported to have gulped several billions of naira.
Yusuf-Adelodun attributed the need for renovation to failure of innovation, saying “Kwara Hotel’s failure is a failure of innovation.”
She said that the ongoing renovation would make sure that the hotel meets up with global trend in hospitality.
