Governor Samuel Ortom signed into law, the revised appropriation bill of N108.8 billion for the year 2020.
The revised budget has a total reduction of N80 billion from the earlier N190.8bn assented to by the Governor. This translates to 43 per cent reduction in the earlier reviewed budget signed by the Governor on 30th December, 2020.
Governor Ortom while performing the ceremony, said the action became necessary following the reduction in oil-related and non oil revenues to the state occasioned by Coronavirus.
The revised budget has reccurent expenditure of N68.6bn representing 40 per cent reduction from the former estimates and personnel cost of N37.3bn, representing a reduction of 26 per cent, while overhead cost and capital projects have estimates of N31.3bn and 40.3bn respectively, representing 51 and 46 percent reduction.
The Governor explained that despite the huge reduction in the current expenditure estimates, government had kept faith with its responsibility to the general workforce by protecting the personnel budget with very minimal reductions in some discretionary allowances.
He said the bulk of the reduction were made on non-critical overhead costs, stressing that overhead provisions that are critical to the COVID-19 response had been retained or increased in some cases.
The Governor reiterated his determination towards provision of infrastructure, security of lives and property of Benue people and the general welfare of the people despite reduction in the budget estimates.
Nigeria Customs Service Board (NCSB) at its 52nd Regular meeting approved the appointment of Five (5) Assistant Comptrollers General of Customs, promotion of 2,634 Officers, dismissal of One (1) ACG and compulsory retirement of another ACG.Hon.
Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning and Chairman, NCS Board, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed who presided over the meeting said decisions taken during the meeting were meant to ginger and move the Service forward in-terms of manpower and operations.
The new Assistant Comptrollers General of Customs are:ACG, Mohammed Boyi – Doctrine DevelopmentACG, Adewale Adeniyi – Commandant C&SC GwagwaladaACG, Jack Ajoku – Strategic Research and PolicyACG, Olakunle Oyeleke – Training and CoordinationACG, Elton Edorhe – Zonal Coordinator, Zone ‘C’Breakdown of the 2,634 Officers whose promotion have 1st January 2019 as effective date is as follows:
Deputy Comptrollers to Comptrollers of Customs = 37
Assistant Comptrollers of Customs to Deputy Comptrollers = 110
Chief Superintendent of Customs to Assistant Comptrollers = 138
Superintendent of Customs to Chief Superintendent of Customs = 93
Deputy Superintendent of Customs to Superintendent of Customs = 93
Assistant Superintendent of Customs I to Deputy Superintendent of Customs = 1224
Assistant Superintendent of Customs II to Assistant Superintendent of Customs I = 475
Inspector of Customs to Assistant Superintendent of Customs II = 464205 out of the 2,634 are Support Staff who also enjoyed promotion to various ranks.In-line with the reform agenda, the Board took some disciplinary actions against two Senior Officers.
ACG Aminu Dahiru was dismissed for act of serious misconduct while ACG Bashir Abubakar was compulsorily retired for act of negligence.The Hon. Minister described the NCS as “Making Progress” and expressed the hope that the coming of the e-Customs will help improve NCS operations.
In an exclusive interview with Abdul Magoro, the Commissioner for Information Technology Kebbi State, he expresses his desire to build capacity in the information technology (IT) and also drive eGovernance across MDAs in the state. Abdul expresses his intention to build an army of IT startups by 2023. Segun Oruame, Anthony Nwosu and Yinka Fagbenle captured this.
Can we have a brief insight to your education and career background?
I have a degree in Business Administration, in London, United Kingdom (UK) back in 1998, then I have my master’s degree in information technology management in the UK also. I have worked with City Bank London and a couple of other places in UK before I came back to Nigeria to contribute to my quota in the development of the country. I did my national youth service (NYSC) at a firm called Ocean and Oil which was taken over by Oando. Then I moved to a private sector, a logistic firm also, I worked at the board in this capacity. I was there for about five years before been appointed as the commissioner for ICT by Governor of Kebbi State, His Excellency Atiku Abudu.
With this impressive resume, we can say that you have what it takes to pilot the ICT in Kebbi, what would be your thrust as a commissioner?
The most important thing is to reorganize the public/government sector. As you know, technology is a driver and we have to deploy ICT in the sector to ensure efficiency and productivity. These are the intention of the Governor of the state. We want Kebbi State to be a state that is being run efficiently, using IT as a platform. My role as a commissioner is to coordinate all the ICT activities in the state. My ministry is to ensure that there is coordination and synergy in this area. We are looking are critical areas such as revenue generation, capacity building and e government. We are just a new ministry less than a month old, but we are making a steady progress by coming up with a draft, policy document or a blueprint that would guide us in this area. We are also here to engage the stakeholders within the IT ecosystem to see how we can all work together and add value in Kebbi State.
With these strategies in place, the challenge is acceptability and cultural change, in the area of e Governance, public sector finds it a bit hard making this transition. How do you go about this?
Yes, you are right. Change has always been frowned upon, but it would be a work in progress and an opportunity for me. This is something that has been initiated by His Excellency, the governor of Kebbi State, Senator Atiku Abudu. We have his support and for him to create a ministry that is focused on ICT in the state, it means that the governor understands the importance of information technology and how it impacts on productivity and development of the state. He understands this, otherwise he would have just an adviser on ICT but he decided to create a ministry solely for ICT. With my access to the executive council, this would also give me an upper hand in creating a policy and having it presented to the governor directly.
How would you ensure that ministries and MDAs comply to this digitization processes that you have in mind?
Well, I would get them to buy into the idea by having a stakeholders meeting. With this process in place, they would be involved and everyone would have an idea or clear path on where we are going and what we are meant to achieve.
Capacity building is one thing that is a challenge in the IT space, especially the North, how do you bridge this in a state that is trying to come to term with IT skills?
We have to look at passion and literacy, we have a lot of youths in the state that have these qualities, what they basically need is support. Ours is to train and retrain them on the best ways they can use IT to better their lives. We are looking at hub, we would build hubs, those that want to be techprenuers, we would encourage them and support them, we would also take others into public sectors. We are looking at ecosystem that would be managed by youths of Kebbi. The whole essence is to empower these youths.
Abdul Magoro, the Commissioner for Information Technology Kebbi State
You said empowerment, most ICT startups have challenge in this area, especially with access to credit. How do you as bridge this gap and change the narrative?
Access to credit and market is what we are known in Kebbi state, today, we are known as one of the foremost rice production states, we are looking at agrotech and how they can use IT to drive higher productivity in agriculture. We have made tremendous strides in support of farmers in improving value chain in agriculture. With this experience, we would replicate this in the IT space.
Are you looking at private sector partnership here?
We are open to private sector partnership and international agencies. The areas we would be focusing for now is revenue generation. This is one area that we would love to engage private sector so that their expertise would be made available to us. We are very open to private sector engagement.
Kebbi State is one of the very few states that have commissioner for ICT in Nigeria. Why set up an IT ministry?
Setting up an IT ministry is due to the obvious reason that IT is a driver of any economy and also, we intend to play in the IT ecosystem not as consumers but also developers. We need to be futuristic in Kebbi and develop capacities that would play a major role in the IT driven economy. We also want to make adequate use of technology to drive productivity from agriculture to startup ecosystem. We also want to change the narrative on how government agencies do things.
Back to capacity building, are you going to work with select education institutions in the state?
We are looking at that also. My ministry in conjunction with ministry of basic education and higher education would sit down and look at the present curriculum which we know its not up to date, we would look at this and know areas of interventions. We would also assist in equipment deployment and resource person that would drive the IT revolution in these schools.
What are the three core objectives that you would be looking at achieving before 2023?
The first would be automation of government processes in the state, the second is capacity building of over 150,000 youths before the 2023 and the last one is to target the girl child in the appreciation of IT. We intend to create startups before 2023 and deepen the ICT capacity building in the state.
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission Director Stephen M. Haykin joined with Governor Hope Uzodinma in a virtual signing ceremony to formalize a new partnership with Imo State to improve the management and delivery of water and sanitation (WASH) services to help people live healthier lives through reliable access to clean water.
Today’s Memorandum of Understanding outlines commitments between USAID and Imo State to jointly develop a professionally managed, commercially oriented, and accountable state Water Board. This will be accomplished by improving the Water Board’s financial viability, and strengthening policy, institutional, and regulatory frameworks for better WASH service delivery.
“By strengthening the Water Board’s capacity to make solid investment decisions, improve billing and collection systems, and improve responsiveness to customer needs,” Haykin said at the ceremony, “USAID, through E-WASH, will help increase access to clean water and reduce waterborne disease in Imo State, feeding into our mutual goal of creating a healthier, more economically robust Nigeria.”
After formal declaration of corporatization of the new Imo State Water and Sewerage Corporation, Governor Uzodinma, promised to announce the board of directors at a later date said
In his remarks, Governor Uzodinma acknowledged that up to 85 percent of his rural constituents lack access to a reliable source of running water and expressed hope that within a year the activity could reach up to 100,000 residents of the state.
“This project is consistent with the goals of my administration to ensure that the welfare of my people is advanced and protected,” the governor said. “Therefore, I commit our cooperation to ensure this project is delivered. We are [also] committed to running the Imo Water Board as a business to ensure its commercial viability.”
Through the $60.4 million Effective Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Services (E-WASH) activity, USAID will support Imo and five other states to increase access to clean water and reduce disease by strengthening their Water Boards’ capacity to make solid investment decisions, improve billing and collection systems, and ensure greater responsiveness to customer concerns.
Over four years, E-WASH will spur the mobilization of an additional $50 million from public and private sources. It will also provide access to piped clean water to at least 50,000 households. Delta, Abia and Taraba have all signed similar agreements.
E-WASH is one component of a wider USAID effort to foster closer coordination with federal and state government agencies to advance broad-based economic growth and resilience in Nigeria through improved WASH services.
Senator Orji Uzor Kalu received a rousing welcome when he returned to Abia state on Monday, July 27, months after he was released from prison…
Recall that in December 2019, the former Abia state governor was sentenced to 12 years in prison after he was convicted for N7.1bn fraud alongside his firm, Slok Nigeria Limited, and a former Director of Finance during his tenure, Ugo Udeogu.
The Supreme court on May 8, 2020, then nullified Kalu and Udeogo’s conviction on grounds that the presiding judge, Justice Mohammed Idris, lacked the jurisdiction to have presided over their case. He was released from Kuje prison on June 3, 2020.
On Monday, July 27, he made a triumphant return to the state and was received by his teeming supporters.
