AbdulRasaq flags- off social investment programme in Kwara

Kwara state Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq on Thursday flagged- off the social investment programme for the informal sector in the state.

The programme which is designed to give financial support to the less privileged people operating at the informal level in the state was flaged -off at Government Secondary School, Ilorin by Governor AbdulRasaq.

AbdulRasaq while addressing the beneficiaries, said the programme was initiated by his administration to carry along the less privileged in the state, who are largely in the informal sector.

He said: “The soft loans for commercial transporters under the programme was scheduled to come later in the year, but due to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic that forced government to declare a total lockdown in the state, they had to adjust and bring it forward in order to relieve them of effects of the lockdown that had crippled their businesses.”.l

Apart from the Ilorin center, the flag-off was being carried out in all the accredited centers across the 16 local government areas in the state.

“We initially planned to give N10,000 loan to 10,000 people to start with, but I can confirm to you that we had captured close to 20,000 people now and there is probability of going beyond 20,000 because we still have a lot of people yet to be captured on the queue across all the centers,” the governor revealed.

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He however, said his administration would continue to do everything possible to ensure that vulnerable people get their due in terms of programmes and activities that can assist them.

In his remarks, one of the beneficiaries, Babatunde Ayinla, who claimed to be vice-president of Heritage Okada Riders in Ilorin, appreciated Governor AbdulRasaq for the gesture.

He said that “we are grateful to our governor, most especially the process of selecting the beneficiaries and how he made paying back the loan easy for our members, having giving us the opportunity to be paying back in the range of N100 daily.”