We saved 16.7bn in Katsina State without borrowing a kobo

Katsina state governor, Ibrahim Shema who was sworn in May 29 for a second term, in this interview with explains that the primary responsibilities of government are to provide for the general well being of the people.

He throws light on how his administration in the last four years, saved N16. 7billion and provided projects that touch the lives of the people without borrowing a kobo for four years.

How has it been governing Katsina State in the last four years?

I have always said that power belongs to God and he gives it to whoever he pleases. First of all I thank God for giving me the opportunity to serve.

Ibrahim Shema

Through his mercies, we have done so many things in the last four years to improve the lives of our people. In agricultural sector, education, commerce and health, we have shown that we are here to work for the people. We have put together a 250 bed hospital, the first of its kind to be built and owned by a state government. In the entire northern Nigeria , there is only one such hospital in Kano .

But now this administration has completed a 250 bed hospital. The equipment has been ready, they are on their way, they will soon be here and a 100 percent payment has been made for them. The rural mobile ambulance scheme will be monitored very well because that touches on the very lives of the rural communities.

Every ambulance goes from village to village, to attend to the needy and when there is need for referrals, the ambulances are used to carry people to medical facilities in the state. We did not leave out sporting events. We have expanded and improved most of our sporting facilities.

We are currently building a 35, 000 capacity stadium in the capital in Katsina. In infrastructure, the housing projects will continue. We have built 1, 772 houses in the last two years and this was all done from the purse of the government. We did not borrow a kobo from any bank. We have done road infrastructure.

There is huge demand for road infrastructure in the state. So far, we have built 27 road projects that are new. Eight that we met on ground that were new. Over 500 kilometers of road that were built by this administration and we are still going strong on that. And we will continue to build and build roads where we have the need for them in this state.

Tourism development was not left out. We improved the quality and the statues of the hotels which are owned by the state government to a three star hotel status. We will try to see what we can do in the transport industry, we have the state transport company that have about 50 vehicles that were there for all this years.

There has never been any change in the issue of the number and size of transport companies that we have in the country. But at the same time, we felt the need for us to expand the services to the people. We introduced different varieties of transportation mix. We introduce some township bus services that did not exist before we came in. we introduce students bus service scheme that carry students points to point, from home to school at the cost of N10 per drop.

These buses have been doing very well in three major towns of Katsina, Daura and Funtua and we have introduce car hire service, still within the state transport company and we introduce long distance bus services that goes from Katsina to Maiduguri, Katsnia to Lagos, Katsina to Onitsha, to the South-East, South-South and to the furthest points of the north.

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