The Kwara State governor Abdulfatah Ahmed has explained why his administration wants to raise N20 billion bond from the capital market.
He also allayed fears in some quarters that servicing the bond might affect regular payment of workers salaries in the state.
The governor said that the state had capacity to continue to pay the N18,000 minimum wage to its workers.
Ahmed spoke in Ilorin during a meeting with stakeholders on the government’s decision to obtain the N20 billion bond.
Justifying the need for the proposed bond, Ahmed lamented that the monthly allocation accrued to the state from federation account had drastically dropped from N3.2 billion obtained in 2013 to N1.8 billion in November 2015.
The governor said the transition from the administration of presidents Goodluck Jonathan to Muhammdu Buhari’s administration left governments at the state and federal level with “huge burden”to contend with.
He said the situation was further compounded by the crash in oil price in the international market where a barrel of crude oil hitherto sold for over $100 per barrel in the previous years has crashed to less than $37 per barrel.
“We cannot spend money the way we use to spend,governance is now more transparent than before,” he said.
These,the governor said informed his government’s decision to seek alternative source of funding to finance projects.
He said the bond had been encapsulated in the 2016 budget which will be presented to the state house on Tuesday (tomorrow).
The meeting was attended by representatives of political parties, organised Labour, market women, Artisans,youth council, KWACCIMA ,Student unions,among others.
