Borno will soon be a success story –Shettima

Category: News Published on Wednesday, 16 January 2013 06:00

Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima yesterday said his state would soon overcome the security challenges confronting it and that the state would also be a success story.

Shettima made the remarks yesterday in Abuja while signing a tripartite agreement with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for the establishment of Entrepreneurship Development Centres (EDC) in the state, one of the three to be sited in the three geo-political zones.

He also linked the Boko Haram insurgency to poverty and hopelessness of the people, saying the problem would be over once jobs are created.

“With all the problems of Boko Haram, I want to assure you that in the next year or two, Borno will be a success story and we will invite all of you to come and celebrate with us,” he said.

He thanked the CBN for choosing Maiduguri as the EDC centre for the zone, adding that his government was going to partner with the CBN to create jobs in order to address the insecurity problems in the North-East.

Speaking, CBN governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, said that only 2.64 percent of about 39,110 graduates of its EDCs in Kano, Lagos and Onitsha were able to access loans from financial institutions and state governments.

He said that as at September 2012, apart from training 39,110 people, 92,449 business promoters were counselled while 7,455 jobs were created in the three EDCs.

He said in order to address the challenge of inadequate access to financial services by EDCs graduates, the bank has mandated the implementing agencies to facilitate linkages between the graduates of the EDCs and the financial institutions for start up capitals and business expansions.

“As we know that poverty rate are higher in the Northern part of the country and Borno and Yobe for a long time have been ranked low as far as human development indices are concern. The insecurity situation in these parts of the country is to our minds fundamentally due to the absence of employment opportunities.”

He said that the bankers committee selected Borno State as a pilot stage for implementation of the national financial inclusion strategy, adding that the programme it would be launched the same day with the Borno EDC next months.