The Bauchi State Ministry of Local Government has expressed its determination to clear the 3 billion Naira debt against the 20 local government councils inherited from the previous administration before the end of 2020 for smooth administration of the councils.
The Commissioner in the ministry Abdulrazak Nuhu Zaki stated this when he interacted with reporters in Bauch.
He said “when we came on board we discovered that the previous administration took three billion naira loan from a commercial bank where local governments account is domiciled with 18 percent interest rate. This is beside the huge amount of money borrowed from the federal government in the name of the local governments”.
Zaki said the loan has now become a bottleneck to the councils, in view of how the bank deduct its money each time each time their federation allocation hits the account, leaving a fraction for them.
He said If not because of the joint account many council’s will not be able to pay their workers salary.
According to him, the strategy he adopted has started yielding result as last month alone he was able to save 300 million Naira with which he paid part of the loan.
Zaki also disclosed that the administration of Governor Bala Muhammed releases the councils’ allocation to them directly, but a limit has been placed on the maount of money they could approve, just as the ministry also monitor them strictly.
He said the present administration had so far awarded contract for the construction of roads linking from Sade through Akuyam inDarazo to Misau and another road from Burga to Mainamaji to go through Tafawa Balewa, Bogoro and Alkaleri local government areas.
