Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has increased the monthly allowances of each of the five emirates councils in the state by 100 per cent.
The state Commissioner of Information, Muhammad Garba, said the upward review was made in view of the increasing challenges of population growth, insecurity and infrastructure in the emirate councils.
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Garba, who revealed that the increment was part of the several approvals made at the weekly State Executive Council meetings, said Kano Emirate Council will now receive a monthly allowance of N100million while the other four emirates (Bichi, Rano, Karaye and Gaya) will receive N40million each.
With this approval, Daily Trust reports that it will now cost Kano State government N3.1billion yearly to run the five emirates, as against the about N1.5billion per annum it early cost.
He said, “The state executive council, after having elaborate discussions on the situation of the emirate councils in the state, especially the financial capacity of these emirates, the council decided to look into ways we can improve the day-to-day activities in the emirates, especially in the newly created emirates as well as to consider the growing population and other challenges we have in the old or existing emirate council (Kano), which has eight local governments.
“In other to build strong emirate councils in the state and for the fact that the emirates are symbols of culture and heritage in our own society, the state executive council after analyzing the memos that were presented, decided to do an upward review of the allowances of the councils, the monthly subventions that are disbursed to the emirate councils.
“The review is by 100%. Therefore Kano emirates that receives N50million monthly before will now receive N100million. Other emirates (Karaye, Rano, Gaya and Bichi) will now receive a monthly subvention of N40million each.”
He explained that the difference in the allocation between Kano Emirate and other emirates was because Kano Emirate has more population and challenges in terms of security and maintenance of infrastructure than other emirates.
He added that a lot of progress had been made in the newly created emirates including new hospitals and new roads, adding that with this improvement in the subventions, the councils would be able to do more.
In a related development, Garba said the state executive council had also approved the conversion of the state Psychiatric Hospital, Dawanau, to Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in line with the transformation agenda of the health sector.
