Kano, UBEC to expend N1.7bn in renovating primary schools

Kano State government has accessed N1.7 billion Universal Basic Education (UBEC) counterpart funding, and will soon use the money to renovate primary schools across the state.

The state governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, made this known while briefing journalists shortly before the commencement of the state weekly Executive Council meeting.

The state government has since released its own commitment to the counterpart funding arrangement, Ganduje said, which was further strengthened by his recent visit to Adamu Adamu, minister of education, in Abuja.

“This development underscores our desire to revitalise education from the grassroots, and we are going to use part of the money to put in place instructional materials that will help our children to have good quality education,” the governor said.

He also said he met with Godwin Emefiele, governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to facilitate release of N3 billion soft loan to small and medium businessmen in the state, revealing that the CBN boss had agreed to expedite action on the issue.

“We also rubbed minds on how the state government can be assisted to complete its two Independent Power Projects as well as evacuation of the energy generated to end users,” he said.

On infrastructural management in the state, the governor lamented that some unscrupulous people had continued to excavate sand near Challawa Bridge in Kumbotso Local Government as well as other bridges in Kano, making them vulnerable to imminent collapse.

Ganduje therefore warned that his administration would take stringent measures to arrest the situation, as it would not allow unpatriotic individuals to put the lives and property of people at risk.

In this regard, he directed state ministry of works, housing and transport to assess all bridges and excavation sites, to determine the extent of damage done to them and possible remedies and submit its report within two weeks.