Katsina State governor, Dikko Radda, on Wednesday unveiled the achievements of his administration in reducing poverty in the state from May 29, 2023 till date.

Addressing journalists in Katsina as part of activities to mark his one year in office, Mr Radda said, ”We came up with a lot of strategies towards reducing poverty in the state. It is true that you don’t need anybody to tell you that there’s poverty. We also understood that the problem of insecurity is attached to the problem of banditry and criminalities that we have in our region.

“We promised to approach the problem in two ways, kinetic and non-kinetic approach. If you are unable to stop or to reduce poverty and provide the teaming youths job opportunities, it will be difficult to address the issue of insecurity.”

He said the state government established the Katsina State Enterprise Development Agency to provide support to  Small and Medium Scale Enterprises, especially micro and small businesses.

He noted that the government set aside N3.4 billion for that, in collaboration with the Bank of Industries as managers.

“Just in the last three weeks, we launched the training of 3,000 youths across the state on mechatronics, who would be attached to various workshops. After their graduation, we’ll support them to set up their own workshops, so that they can provide job opportunities for our teaming youths in the state,” he said.

Mr Radda added that the state government was presently trying to put in place community centres in all villages that will be saddled with the responsibility of all the development and provision of employment and support to the teaming young men and women in localities.

He stated, “We are concentrating on the frontline and vulnerable local governments so that the government will address that issue squarely. Second way of fighting poverty is to improve productivity. Agriculture is our major occupation, that’s why we created the Katsina State irrigation authority. The aim is to have all year-round irrigation farming in the state that will reduce redundancy, and keep everybody busy.’’

He pointed out that to achieve or increase productivity, farmers have to be sensitised on farming as a business.

According to the governor, when he came to power, there were only 72 extension workers in the state, but now there are722.

He stated, “Just yesterday we gave each of them a motorcycle and other equipment to enable them move around to enlighten farmers on the way to improve their productivity. We also launched the sales of about 20,000 metric tons of fertilizer to farmers in the state at a subsidised price. These are some of the things that we are putting in place to engage the farmers, the youths and the locals to be more productive, reduce the level of poverty and improve their livelihood.”

The governor also revealed that the state government, through the KT-CARES, supported over 6,100 farmers in the state.

“We also supported women and youths with items worth over N2.5billion to get them moving,” he said.

 (NAN)