Dapo Abiodun rolls out N5bn interventions to ‘cushion economic hardship’ for Ogun residents

Dapo Abiodun, governor of Ogun, has announced a series of initiatives worth about N5 billion to cushion economic hardship for the people of the state.

Speaking at a press conference in Abeokuta, the state capital, on Wednesday, the governor said the fund would cover areas such as education, health, food palliatives and civil servants provision.

He said a part of the fund would be committed to an education fund for 27, 600 poor students from the state across different tertiary institutions nationwide.

Abiodun said 300,000 households would benefit from the food palliatives which would include the distribution of rice and other items.

“Recognising the concerns raised by many of our citizens regarding the rising food prices and shortages, coupled with the depreciation of the naira, we identify with you and are taking proactive measures to alleviate the impact of these challenges to guarantee the welfare, well-being and wellness of our citizens in this difficult time,” Abiodun said.

“In this direction and through targeted interventions, we aim to address these challenges by implementing a series of phased initiatives aimed at alleviating these burdens on all our citizens.

“The state has taken the following steps: Education Sector: Providing a minimum of 5 exercise books for all 850,000 students in our public primary and secondary schools.

“We are providing a one-time N10,000 education support grant for at least 100,000 pupils in our public primary and secondary schools in the state. Providing all 27,600 indigent students in tertiary institutions nationwide with an education grant of N50,000 each.

“The state government will commence to offset the backlog of inherited deductions. To this end, we are immediately committing N500 million monthly payment towards outstanding deductions.

“It is noteworthy that we have continued to pay N10,000 transport allowance to all civil servants for the last 8 months.”

Abiodun added that “this brings our total immediate interventions as a responsible state government to about N5 billion across all sectors of the state economy”.