Katsina Govt set to establish Irrigation Authority, ICT Data Directorate

The Katsina State Government said it has forwarded two separate Executive Bills to the state lawmakers for the creation of an Irrigation Authority and an ICT Directorate, respectively.

Governor Dikko Umaru Radda, who made the disclosure while at the World Bank office in Abuja, also revealed that the ICT Directorate will focus on gathering data on various sectors of the state, while the Irrigation Authority will be geared towards engaging Katsina youths all-year round in farming, so as to curb criminality and other social vices in the State.

Governor Radda’s visit to the World Bank Office, according to Ibrahim Kaula Mohammed, his spokesperson, was part of boosting the strategic engagement between the Katsina Government and the international donor agency.

Radda, who commended the World Bank for its huge investment in Katsina’s economy, said their intervention in key sectors in the State had helped the Katsina Government tremendously.

He particularly mentioned the AGILE Project and appreciated the way it is being executed in the State, pointing out that the construction of 75 schools in Katsina by the World Bank was greatly commendable.

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Radda said: “The mega school projects will help tackle the menace of out-of-school children in our State. On our part, and as a responsible government, we shall soon be embarking on training and retraining of teachers across Katsina primary and secondary schools”.

The Katsina Governor solicited the assistance of the World Bank in establishing three Model Schools for gifted Katsina children from poor backgrounds, with a view to particularly boost the enrollment figure of the girl child in schools.

Responding, Shubham Chaudhuri, the Country Director of World Bank in Nigeria, thanked Governor Dikko Radda for the visit, noting that Katsina State has been making giant strides in the implementation of many World Bank programmes, particularly AGILE.

“The AGILE project will see to the construction of 150 new Secondary Schools in Katsina State. We shall also be renovating 300 existing Secondary Schools, while training 13,000 teachers between now, and July 2025.”