Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa says the state government spends 95 per cent of its monthly Federation account allocation on the payment of salaries, describing the situation as ‘worrisome’.
Fintiri, who disclosed this while declaring open a 3-day capacity building workshop for Youths and Women on Wednesday in Yola, stated that the state’s monthly allocation from the federation account was only N4.2 billion.
The training was organised by Kambu International Nigeria Limited in collaboration with the state government and funded by Bank of Industry.
Represented by his Chief of staff, Prof. Maxwell Gidado, the governor said: “What we receive from the federation account on a monthly basis is N4.2 billion, while our wage bill for payment of salaries is N3.7 billion.
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“What we have left in government coffers after payment of salaries is about N500 million. Our Internally Generated Revenue is nothing to write home about. We don’t generate up to N1 billion monthly in the state”, Fintiri said.
He added that from the breakdown, it was clear that the state government cannot provide employment for all the graduating youths in the state.
Fintiri said engaging youths in entrepreneurship training was, therefore, the only way to reduce poverty and create job opportunities for the teeming unemployed youths in the state.
The governor reiterated his administration’s readiness to partner any developmental organisation with an entrepreneurial programme to support youths and women out of poverty.
In a remark, Mrs Dabney Shall-Holma, Chief Executive Officer of Kambu international Nigeria Ltd, said the core objective of the training programme was to develop young entrepreneurs, enhance their income and improve their economy derived knowledge.
Shall-Holma said the trainees would be exposed to wealth and job creation opportunities for sustainable economic development.
In his keynote address, Mr Olukayode Pitan, Managing Director, Bank of Industry (BOI) said the bank was supporting the capacity building of youths and women for self-reliance.
Represented by Salman Ali, project monitoring officer of the bank, Pitan said the bank was also encouraging graduates of tertiary institutions to strive to be employers of labour, rather than looking for juicy government appointments.
NAN reports that no fewer than 210 youths and women selected from across the state were trained on different entrepreneurial skills.
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