Olakunle Maruf Sokoto
Senior Special Assistant to Sokoto State Governor, Hon. Yusuf Dingyadi has commended the striving of the state Governor, Rt. Honourable Aminu Waziri Tambuwal in repositioning the state socio-economy status despite many financial burdens met before his assumption of office.
Dingyadi, stated this while speaking with Journalists on some of the achievements made by the governor which have earned the state to be rated high in financial prudence and accountability.
He maintained that through the efforts of the state commissioner for finance, Hon. Abdulsamad Dasuki, the state is well position to compete with others in terms of developmental agenda.
The senior special assistant to the governor also praised the ingenuity of the state commissioner for finance, for putting a solution to some of the leakage of government which he said improves the state internal revenue from less than 200m naira to almost 600m naira.
He further listed the recent commissioning of Investment House, Sokoto Geographical Information Center and centralisation state Internal Generated Revenue (IGR) as one of the numerous initiatives of the Governor.
“Sokoto State has just been rated 8th among best states in fiscal sustainability, best in prudent management of funds, by the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
“The state reached 93 percent in sound financial discipline and due process by the Independent Verified Agency of World Bank and rated same by Quality Assurance Agency of the same institution.” SSA explained.
He however cited the huge salary structure on state civil servants as a great impediment affecting the infrastructural development plan of the administration. “Imagine a situation where the state spends about N2.5 billion on salaries and wages of civil servants drawing from a monthly allocation of about N4 billion.
“These excludes the salary of political appointees, pensioners also collected about N288 million monthly, while government spends between N100 and N120 million every month on water treatment to ensure portable water is provided for the good people of the state.
“It is also on record that this administration is spending between N80 to N100 million to offset the accumulated gratuities of retirees on monthly basis. We also have about N1 billion been deducted to service loan owed by the state.” Dingyadi explained.
He however appealed to the people of the state to be patience, as all the programme and infrastructure of the administration will benefit the state
He recalled that the government during the inauguration of the new office complex of the state internal revenue called investment house announced the donation of 500 million naira contribution to the successful take off of the new commercial bank, Taj Bank, which also opened it’s branch in the state.
“This is apart from the 2B naira invested in the state Micro Financed bank, Gingiya microfinance bank which was disbursed as a interest free loan to the people of the state”.
