Kebbi State Governor, Nasir Idris, has approved N282.3 million for the complete rehabilitation and upgrade of the state-owned printing press.

The state Commissioner for Information and Culture, Yakubu Ahmad, made this known during an assessment visit to the printing press undergoing rehabilitation in Birnin Kebbi on Thursday.

He said that the official printing press of the state government had been redundant for many years without proper operations.

He stated, “The state government under the leadership of Governor Nasir Idris has approved the complete rehabilitation of the whole two sections of the printing press with a total sum of N282.3 million. Part of the contract is the provision of important critical machines that will enhance our intention to make it fully operational,” he said.

According to him, the rehabilitation and upgrading will also ensure the secrecy and confidentiality of government documents in line with the requirements of the law as well as serve as another source of internally generated revenue to the state.

He stated, “Most of the printings, the state government has to do elsewhere, and that jeopardises confidentiality. Another thing again, is that the staff deployed there are idle, and we want them to be fully engaged and even employ additional unemployed youths. We have four units under the state Ministry of Information and Culture: Kebbi TV, Kebbi Radio, Printing Press and History Bureau, and as you know we have rehabilitated and upgraded Kebbi TV and Kebbi Radio as they are fully operational now. We are now on the printing press and as soon as we are done with this one, we are certainly moving to the history bureau.’’

According to him, the project is expected to be completed within two months.

The commissioner commended Mr Idris for the approval and his numerous developmental projects aimed at moving the state to greater heights.

(NAN)