The Kwara State Government has allocated N1.5 billion in the first quarter of 2025 to alleviate hardship among disadvantaged citizens and stimulate economic growth across the state.

The administration is also addressing the impact of the "brain drain" (Japa syndrome) on healthcare, which has led to a shortage of medical doctors and trained nurses.

Olayinka Tejini, Acting Manager of the Kwara State Social Investment Programme (KWASIP), revealed that these efforts are part of the government's social investment strategy, launched to support youths, vulnerable groups, and low-income residents through targeted interventions.

Speaking at the state interministerial press briefing for the first quarter of 2025 on Tuesday, Tejini said Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq floated the programme in 2019 and that, since then, the programme has improved the lots of many people and boosted the economy of the state.

He explained that the programme was created in three major legs, which he said are in the form of cash support for the poorest, creation of job opportunities or small-scale enterprise for the youths, and boosting the economy of the state through the promotion of an entrepreneurial society.

The KWASIP boss said that within the first quarter of 2025, the government had approved a safety net for both the skilled and the unskilled, in which 20,000 people comprising the youths and the vulnerable benefited N20,000 each.

He stated that the government had also approved N20,000 each for 20,000 petty traders to aid the growth of their trade.

Tejini disclosed that within the quarter, the government also organised a household support sum under which 7,000 households benefited N100,000 each.

He explained that all the beneficiaries were favoured without regard to their political leanings, constituencies, or localities, adding that the programme was devoid of discrimination in any form.

Also speaking at the briefing, the Executive Secretary of the Kwara State Hospital Management Board, Abdulrahman Malik, disclosed that there is an acute shortage of medical doctors in the state-owned hospitals.

He said that due to the 'Japa' syndrome, doctors do not want to take up appointments with the state government, even when the government is ready to recruit them.

Tejini lamented that while between 180 and 200 doctors are required in the government service, only 89 of them are available in the service.

He said the number of available doctors only recently became 89 from 86 when three who had left the service returned after the government introduced a new and improved salary for the doctors' services.

The hospital board's boss said the government had been trying to attract doctors to the state service with improved salary and facilities that could encourage them to stay, especially in the rural areas where many of them do not want to go.

Tejini also disclosed that the government has introduced an intern nurses programme for the training of nurses who would replace many nurses who had left the service for abroad.

Speaking on the activities of his own ministry, the Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Afeez Abolore Alabi, said that within the first quarter, the government had engaged in collaborations and synergies with agencies to boost agricultural activities in the state.

Alabi said that farmers in the state would benefit from the collaborations, as he also assured that farm inputs that may be provided by the government would reach the needy farmers.

He said the government had embarked on a programme of converting unused land in any campus of the state-owned tertiary institutions into farmland to provide opportunities for agricultural business for the schools and at the same time prevent encroachment on the land by outsiders.

In her own speech, the Commissioner for Business Innovation and Technology, Damilola Yusuf-Adelodun, said the government had, within the first quarter, intensified efforts on the ongoing renovation of Kwara Hotel, and that the renovation, with 172 rooms and 4 chalet rooms, would be completed soon.