Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode, on Tuesday disclosed that the government would begin the disbursement of the much anticipated N25 billion Employment Trust Fund (ETF) and other empowerment programmes initiated by his administration next week.
Governor Ambode, who spoke at the 3rd Quarter 2016 Town Hall Meeting held at the Indoor Sports Hall, Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, said that the funds for the programmes targeted to assist youths, artisans and the needy become self reliant have been provided, hence beneficiaries would start getting support from the last quarter of the year.
“We will roll out all our empowerment programmes immediately to assist all our youth, artisans and the needy. The funding for the N500m Lagos State Persons Living with Disability Fund has been provided and beneficiaries will start getting support from this quarter,” he said.
To beef up the security in the state, especially at the community level, Ambode also disclosed plans to recruit at least 5,000 Neighbourhood Watchers with new recruits expected to earn at least N25,000 monthly with other allowances.
He said the neighbourhood Safety Agency Bill which he signed into law on August 15, 2016, was part of efforts to institutionalise and deepen community policing in the State.
“There is a law that has just been passed which is the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps Law, 2016 and in line with the resolution taken by the House of Assembly yesterday, we would go all out to make sure that this agency is activated and all our neighbourhoods will be covered, and then centralize with the State Government with all the necessary equipment and resources to ensure that we establish what we call community policing and that is the way to go.
“We will rebrand Neighbourhood Watchers and re-equip them to the level that each Neighbourhood Watchers in all the Local Governments will have their vehicles and necessary equipment to complement security. We are also working on employing additional 5,000 Neighbourhood Watchers in all our Local Governments and they will be paid by us, while the basic salary for the entrance level will be N25,000 per month,” the governor said.
Speaking on the budget performance of the 2016 budget, Governor Ambode disclosed that the state’s budget performance for January to September performed at 69 per cent as against 65 per cent for the same period in 2015.
He said a total of N166.8billion has been spent on capital projects this year, a figure, he said, was more than double the N53.6billion spent for the same period last year.
Governor Ambode said the state generated a total revenue of N97.3billion in the last quarter with an expenditure of expenditure of N110.2billion, noting that the cash reserve of the State has remained positive.
