Ganduje assures of projects completion in 2018

From Mustapha Adamu, Kano

Kano state government has said that the citizens will witness project completion and commissioning from the first quarter of 2018.
The state Commissioner for Information, Muhammad Garba, disclosed this at a media briefing on the outcome of the State Executive Council meeting, yesterday.
According to Garba, lack of funds had forced the state government to stop some of the ongoing projects, adding that the government had provided robust provisions in the 2018 budget that would enable it complete and commission the projects it inherited and those that it initiated.
He further stated that Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje’s administration was willing to complete and commission about 95% of the projects it inherited and initiated by 2019.
“I want to believe that the 2018 budget is going to be less than what were were able to project in the 2017 budget, because we have to try to look at the progress in the 2017 budget. I am sure you would agree with me that we have performed well interns of implementation of the budget, despite some challenges here and there,” he said.
He added, “By next year, what you will witness is commissioning of projects. You realised that some of the projects are not moving as expected due to lack of money. But, the arrangement of the 2018 is going to make provisions for most of these projects.
“So the first quarter of 2018 is going to be a busy year for us as most of the projects we have inherited and those that we initiated will be commissioned, so that by 2019,we will be able to finish about 90-95%,”
The commissioner further said that the present administration was able to increase the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) on what it inherited from the immediate past administration.
He said based on the information available from the state’s Board of Internal Revenue, the IGR realised by the state stood at N1.5 to N 1.7 billion monthly, adding that the figure did not include intervention of organizations operating on the state.
He added that the target of the state’s IGR stood at above N2.billion as provided in the 2017 budget, noting that the state could not meet the target but the IGR was appreciating monthly.
He, however, stated that the Ganduje administration was up and doing to serve the citizens better, lamenting that the opposition were also bent on tarnishing the image of the administration through propaganda.