I used N15 billion to build drainage – Katsina governor

Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina has said his administration spent N15 billion (Fifteen Billion Naira) to build drainage and N30 billion (Thirty Billion Naira) to renovate 7,000 schools in the state.

He disclosed that the state government partnered with the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) to execute the renovation of the schools.

Masari made this known on Thursday, September 8 while receiving former members of Katsina House of Assembly who paid him a courtesy visit at the government house, NAN reports.

The governor said that the entire N30,000,000,000 was spent on rehabilitating the schools across 34 Local Government Areas.

According to him, the state government employed 5,000 teachers and gave promotion to all teachers who had not been promoted in the last nine years.

The governor noted that they are part of his administration’s effort toward enhancing the teaching and learning processes in the state.

He further explained that the enrolment of primary school pupils had increased from one million to more than 2.2 million from 2015 to date, noting that this was achieved because of his administration’s strategies in the education sector.

He also mentioned that his government spent N15 billion constructing drainage in Katsina’s metropolitan area to tackle flooding.

Masari said his administration was spending N4 billion yearly on the same project and that the Katsina government, in collaboration with the World Bank, spent more than N50 billion tackling flooding and gully erosion in Katsina, Jibia, Malumfashi and Funtua local government areas.

He added that he has expended N15 billion on construction of drainages in Katsina metropolitan area to tackle flooding, noting that the administration was spending N4 billion yearly on the same project.

He reiterated that the government, in collaboration with the World Bank, had also spent over N50 billion in tackling flooding and gully erosion in Katsina, Jibia, Malumfashi and Funtua Local Government Areas of the state.

In other news, Executive secretary, Jigawa State Rehabilitation Board, Ibrahim Rabakaya, has said the state government spent a total of N192.96 billion to implement its Maternal and Child Cash Transfer (MCCT) programme between November 2021 and June 2022.

He made the disclosure on Wednesday, August 31st during a three-day validation of Kaduna state’s Graduation Youth-Focused Social Protection programme in Kano state, NAN reports.

Rabakaya said the programme was introduced in 2021 based on the successes that the cash transfer programme recorded after it was implemented in the state by a Non-Governmental Organisation, Action Against Hunger (AAH).

According to him, the implementation of MCCT under the Child Development Grant programme, provided the evidence needed to prove the effectiveness of cash transfer in addressing poverty and vulnerability.

The Executive Secretary revealed that 5,740 beneficiaries were targeted for the conditional cash transfer across the 287 political wards in the state, particularly pregnant women and lactating mothers.