The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Sokoto state government

  • 12,915 ‘ghost workers’ in Sokoto State payroll-Commissioner

    12,915 ‘ghost workers’ in Sokoto State payroll-Commissioner

    The Sokoto State Government said on Thursday that it had discovered no fewer than 12,915 `ghost workers,’ padded into the payrolls of the 23 local government areas of the state.

    Alhaji Mannir Dan-Iya, the Commissioner for Local Government and Community Development, disclosed this at a media briefing in Sokoto.

    ” The ministry, through the monitoring department and other stakeholders have concluded a local government junior staff verification of about 58,143 workers, comprising of scheduled and unscheduled staff.

    ” The verification exercise yielded fruitful result, whereby about 12, 915 workers, comprising of seat-at-home and ghost workers were fished out of the local governments’ staff payrolls.

    ” The state government also saved over N 319 million from the exercise, hence, it was a huge success,” he said.

    Dan-Iya said that the ministry is planning to conduct a similar verification exercise of senior staff, whose salaries are paid through their respective banks.

    He also said that issues that arose from the exercise, mostly associated with ” human errors” were being addressed in collaboration with stakeholders.

    Dan-Iya added that the ministry had boosted the internally generated revenues of the local governments by engaging consultants.

     

  • Tambuwal to Bill Gates: Come partner with us

    Tambuwal to Bill Gates: Come partner with us

    Sokoto state government has sought for a partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for the development of agriculture and related sectors in the state.

    “We appreciate your efforts in improving healthcare delivery in Sokoto state in particular in Nigeria as a whole. I want to inform that the potential agricultural sector holds in Sokoto is enormous. We seek partnership with you to modernise the sector and improve the earnings of our farmers,” the state Governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal said during a video conference with Mr. Gates to assess the progress of Routine Immunisation in Sokoto.

    The immunisation programme is funded by the Gates, Dangote Foundation and the United Stated Agency for International Development (USAID).

    According to Tambuwal, with more than 85 percent of Sokoto’s population engaged in one form of agricultural activity or another, the partnership will create value for all parties and ensure rapid development of local farmers in the state.

    Agricultural development is one of the largest initiatives of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. To date, the Foundation has committed more than US$2 billion to agric development efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

    In June this year, Gates launched a campaign to help extremely poor families in sub-Saharan Africa by giving them 100,000 chickens.

    According to him, raising and selling the birds can be efficient to tackle extreme poverty.

    Speaking on efforts to boost immunisation in Sokoto, Tambuwal assured the development partners that Sokoto government will meet its funding obligation, while a new data centre will be opened in the state ministry of health to ease collection and processing of data for proper planning.

     

     

     

  • Sokoto to launch education appeal fund

    Sokoto to launch education appeal fund

    To further consolidate its state of emergency declaration in the education sector, Sokoto state government on Thursday unveiled its intention to launch an educational appeal fund.

    The essence it explained, is tailored at effectively providing basic educational needs for the sector.

    Disclosing the development to newsmen in Sokoto, the state capital, the state commissioner for Environment, Alhaji Bello Sifawa said the measure was part of the state government’s

    commitment to ensure the realization of the objectives of the recent declaration of a state of emergency in the sector.

    According to him” This is part of the efforts to ensure that all the various stakeholders make their meaningful contribution towards revamping the hitherto moribund sector”, explaining that it was

    further aimed at providing a  proper foundation for education, especially at the basic and secondary levels to ensure optimal performance.

    Sifawa who spoke shortly after the state weekly executive council meeting also stated that the state government will reach to wealthy individuals, corporate organizations, development partners and donor agencies in this direction.

    He said the purposeful decision was to complement the efforts of the state government in providing basic educational needs, adding that doing so, will ensure the provision of quality education to its youths, hence guaranteeing the future of the state and that of Nigeria by extension.

    Accordingly, he said ” the era when pupils and students receive lectures on bare floor will soon be a thing of the past.

    ” This is because concrete plausible measures aimed at providing conducive atmosphere for learning had been taken.

    ” Already, the state government had allocated nearly 27  per cent of the 2016 budget to the education sector, well above the 26 per cent UNESCO standard,” he added.

    In the same vein, the council has also approved the purchase of  four generators each with a  500 KVA capacity for the state water board at the cost of  N395 million.

    Sifawa explained that it was  aimed at enhancing the provision of adequate potable water to the residents of sokoto city and its environs” this is in addition to approval for the purchase of two generators for the Usman Faruk and Giginya secretariat complexes  at the cost of  N 65 million for the smooth running of government activities”, he disclosed further.