Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal says his administration will leverage strategic partnerships with the United Nations Development Programme, (UNDP), and other development organisations, to chart sustainable pathways, that will address the numerous socioeconomic challenges facing the state, and lift the people out of poverty.
Governor Lawal said this in Gusau, the state capital, during the flag-off of the distribution of cheques of One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira each to 1000 small-scale and medium business owners, as well as irrigation equipment to three hundred farmers, in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme, (UNDP), aimed to boost the state’s economy.
At the gathering included the Secretary to the Zamfara State Government, Abubakar Nakwada, Chief of Staff, Government House, Gusau; Moukhtar Lugga, commissioners, special advisers, traditional rulers, local government chairmen and relevant stakeholders as well as the team from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The event was the distribution of cheques of One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira each to 1000 entrepreneurs as start-up capital, as well as irrigation equipment to three hundred farmers, for dry-season farming in Zamfara State, Northwest Nigeria.
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Governor Dauda Lawal assured the people that the intervention is one of the many that his administration will continue to roll out, to address poverty and unemployment rates in the state, that require bold and decisive action to tackle.
He disclosed that he had established a personal mechanism to track the progress of the programme, even as his administration is determined to ensure that the investment yields fruit, and revamps the economy.
The Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Abdulmalik Gajam, and the Head of UNDP, Northwest, Ashrap Usman, highlighted the number of beneficiaries, and the significance of the intervention in poverty reduction.
The UNDP representative, Ashrap Usman, announced that the UN agency will build about 158 houses, and equip them for Internally Displaced Persons, (IDPs), to provide shelter for them, and to alleviate their hardship.
(Editor: Paul Akhagbemhe)
