Date: 2018-08-11

The Kwara State Commissioner for Planning and Economic Development, Alhaji Wasiu Odewale, said on Friday that the state government had implemented 45 percent of its fiscal budget for 2018 by the end of the second quarter.

Odewale told newsmen on Friday in Ilorin that the success recorded in budget implementation in the second quarter was unprecedented.

He said that many infrastructure projects were executed in the second quarter of the year.

"We had about 29 per cent implementation of capital projects, while the overall level of performance of 2018 Kwara budget is within 43-45 per cent as at the end of second quarter.

"The major economic achievement of 2018 fiscal year so far is in the area of infrastructure development, which will stimulate and improve socio-economic activities of the state," the commissioner said.

He said that the state government had been able to improve on energy, transport, commerce and cooperatives, water supply, construction of prototype complex, among others.

"There are also some micro-projects implemented through the Kwara State Community and Social Development Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development.

"It is a World Bank-assisted project with the counterpart fund provided by the Kwara State government, and the communities have their 10 percent contribution for any project of their choice in their respective areas," Odewale said.

On job creation, the commissioner said the state government had put in place an agricultural value chain through the disbursement of N1 billion loan to farmers under the Central Bank of Nigeria Anchor Borrower's Programme.

"About 8,889 youths with additional 20,000 applicants were captured through the joint efforts of the Federal Government and the state in the areas of N-power," he said.

The commissioner revealed that some 1,210 youths, in February this year, were employed under The Youth Employment and Social Support Operation (YESSO) programme, with N7,500 being paid monthly, while by September, another 8,669 youths would be added to the scheme.

Odewale, however, attributed the slow pace of some capital projects in the state to paucity of fund.

He said the government was working round the clock to ensure that no project was left abandoned at the expiration of the tenure of the present administration. NAN