Jigawa reassures on empowerment poverty alleviation

Commitment to the urgent empowerment of the poor people of Jigawa State is the basis for the huge investments in the transformation of the economic environment of the state by Governor Sule Lamido, the state Commissioner for Commerce, Industry, Co-operatives and Tourism, Alhaji Muktar Mohammed has declared.

Speaking at the weekend in a session with the review team of the governors’ forum, Mohammed said that the principal objective of the present administration in the state was to alleviate the poverty of the people of the state; hence the programmes aim to remove Jigawa indigenes from the list of some of the poorest persons in the nation.

He said that Governor Lamido designed several poverty alleviation schemes in the state upon taking over government in 2007 after holding direct talks with the extremely poor of the state in order to decipher how to frontally tackle poverty in the rural communities.

He said: “When this government assumed office it felt there was need for social, economic and political changes, hence economic reforms became inevitable. We tried to solve the economic problems through a summit where we got information on the poor in the state.”

The Commissioner stated that the government was implementing its programmes with a view to expanding the opportunities available to the people of the state, so that they can become economically independent and rely on the government for their sustenance.

He stated that the administration completed the Maigatari Border Free Zone to create 15,000 new jobs and business opportunities for indigenes of the state.

According to him: “The objective of establishing the zone is the development of internally generated revenue through the promotion of the non-oil sector and the empowerment of the people, which to us is the reason why we are in government”.

The Commissioner added that the state government was developing three major main markets across the state with modern facilities to increase the tempo of economic activities in the state.

He stated that the state government has invested in the establishment of five industries to utilize the abundant natural resources in the state to boost the revenue available to the state for other development purposes. He said the industries built include Floor Mills at Gumel, Atari Rice Mills at Hadeija, dairy processing at Birnin Kudu, tomato and citrus processing company at Hadeija.

Responding, the director-general of the governors’ forum, Mr. Asishana Okauru, stated that investments in pro-poor projects were relevant to give the people a sense of belonging in the administration of their respective states.

He pointed out that good governance entails assisting the people to tame poverty in order to enjoy better standard of living.