At its 140th meeting held virtually yesterday, the National Economic Council, NEC, revealed that only 16 of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, have submitted their reports on the proposed establishment of state police, despite the fact that all the states of the federation had expressed their support for it.
Vice President Kashim Shettima, who is also the chairman of the council, said the renewed hope administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is determined to leave a legacy of prosperity and opportunity for all Nigerians.
He urged state governors to nominate persons to represent each geo-political zone at the zonal level and focal persons to lead the implementation of the i-DICE programme in their respective states.
The i-DICE programme, which aims to create millions of jobs in the technology space, has received funding from organizations such as the African Development Bank, AfDB, the French Development Agency, AFD, and the Islamic Development Bank, IsDB.
The breakdown of funds includes AfDB ($170 million), IsDB ($70 million), AFD ($116 million), and the Bank of Industry (BoI) on behalf of the Federal Government ($45.50 million).
The Executive Director in charge of SMES at the Bank of Industry, Mr Shekarau Omar, stated that the programme is a special intervention by the government to deliver on the promise by the Tinubu administration to create millions of jobs in the technology space.
He also mentioned that at least 1,269,757 youths would be trained and certified in ICT skills, with at least 25,000 youths trained in each state of the federation and the FCT.
Meanwhile, the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation disclosed that several months after the government of former President Muhammadu Buhari granted states and the FCT a N1.72 trillion budget support grant, they were yet to refund the money.
During the presentation of the i-DICE programme, the following account balances were reported: the Excess crude account stood at $473,754.57, the Stabilization Account at N33,808,342,662.88, and the current balance of natural resources at N113,925,600,918.68.
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