By Laleye Dipo in Minna
The Niger State Governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, has harped on the need for the state to lay more emphasis on how to generate funds internally because the future looks bleak for the global economy.
Bello made the remark in an address at the opening of a three-day retreat on ‘Administrative Relationship Strategic Communication and Management of Public Finance for Economic Development’ for newly appointed members of the state Executive Council.
A statement by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Mary Noel Berje, quoted Bello as saying at the retreat held at the 5th Chukker Polo Club, Kaduna that the state must work towards moving away from over-reliance on the federal government allocation and device other means of generating finance so as to strengthen the state’s economy.
“The future is looking very bleak financially and things will be tougher.
“We need to block leakages, and we must do some structural adjustments to survive the challenges of the future and the only solution is to move away from dependent on federal allocations and to raise our internally generated revenue so that federal allocation becomes just an augmentation. Our main revenue should come from what we generate internally and what we get as FAAC should be an augmentation.
“We must change the narrative because we must survive. We must move our system from basically a publicly reliance system into a private sector system,” Berje quoted the governor as telling the commissioners.
He further charged the participants on financial prudence, asking them to avoid memos that “are not relevant” and by all means complete ongoing projects before embarking on new ones which must affect the lives of the people.
Bello described the retreat as timely and informative, urging the participants to ensure they block all leakages in the system so as to improve the finances in the state.
In his remarks, the Chief of Staff, Government House, Alhaji Balarebe Ibrahim, commended the governor for the initiative which he said has given the participants the opportunity to brainstorm and face the challenges of service delivery to the people.
