Date: 2016-12-16

The News Agency of Nigeria, NAN reports that Kwara State Government on Thursday pledged to upset all backlogs of salaries and pension arrears due to workers in the state within the first quarter of 2017.

Dr Muideen Akorede, the Senior Special Assistant to Gov Abdulfatah Ahmed on Media and Communications stated this at a Media Parliament organised by the State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).

According to NAN, speaking on "Kwara Project; Collective Responsibility for Shared Burden," Akorede said that the government had released N1 billion to local governments in the state out of the n5 billion it received as the state's share of Paris Club loan deduction.

The senior media aide asserted that the government had secured funding widows for all ongoing projects in the state to ensure their completion by Dec 2018.

According to him, under the Infrastructure Fund – Kwara (IF-K), the government would pool funds to finance critical infrastructure.

Akorede disclosed that the state had infrastructure deficit of N8 billion as at the time the gpvernor took over. He however said that the government had devised means to bridge the deficit by May 2019.

"The most enduring legacy of this administration is Kwara Internal Revenue Service, and the state has carried out reforms in various sectors that Federal Government had not even started thinking of."

He identified other projects to be embarked upon by the state government as light-up-Kwara, construction of diamond split underpass, equiping of the International Vocational Centre, and construction of strategic roads among others.

Mallam Abiodun Abdulkareem, the Chairman of the state council of NUJ said that the forum was to enable stakeholders to discuss better ways to move the society forward.(NAN)