By Ayo Bada
Senior Correspondent, Lagos
Kwara State Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed has said he is prepared to go into big time farming to contribute to the economic growth of the state and ensure food security.
The governor said this during an interactive session with Civil Servants on levels 16 and 17 as well as Permanent Secretaries.
He said the slide in earnings from federation account from about N3.8 billion at the inception of his administration to a little over N1billion monthly, called for cutting of costs in order to sustain governance and development of infrastructure.
Governor Ahmed assured the civil servants that despite the prevailing economic challenges in the country, their welfare and regular payment of salaries and emoluments remain his top priorities.
The governor said the projection of his administration is to hit N3billion mark on Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) by the end of 2016, away from the present N1.2bn monthly which was still impressive from the monthly N500 million being generated at the inception of his tenure.
“We will continue to ensure that our civil servants are happy, efficient and productive; but to whom much is given much is expected”, he said.
According to him, although personnel cost is a critical factor, his administration would not reduce the work force in order not to add to the army of unemployed but would ensure prudence in the management of available resources.
The governor asserted that civil servants’ salaries in the State are paid to date, except those who have challenges with their Biometric Verification Numbers (BVN), stressing that once the issues are resolved they would be paid.
He warned civil servants who perpetrate acts inimical to the integrity of the service such as age falsification, collection of multiple salaries and fake certificates that such acts would be identified, culprits made to refund illegally earned salaries and prosecuted.
