Governor Abubakar Bello of Niger State on Sunday warned that things may be tougher in the state.
Bello called for structural adjustment in governance to boost economic growth and development in the state.
The governor said this in a statement signed by Mrs Mary Berje, his Chief Press Secretary.
He added that the future would be tougher than it is, hence the need for structural adjustment and financial prudence.
According to him, “The future is looking very bleak financially and things will be tougher.
According to him, the state must work towards moving away from over-reliance on Federal Government Allocation and device other means of generating finance.
Bello further encouraged all government officials to block all leakages in the system so as to improve the state’s finances.
The statement reads in part: “We need to block leakages, and we must do some structural adjustments to survive the challenges of the future and the only solution is to move away from dependence on Federal allocations.
“This is to enable us increase our internally generated revenue so that federal allocation becomes just an augmentation. Our main revenue should come from what we generate internally and what we get as FAAC should be an augmentation.
“We must change the narrative because we must survive. We must move our system from basically a publicly reliance system into a private sector system.”
He called on the commissioners as well as other government officials to ensure proper execution of government policies and projects, urging them to imbibe ethical practices of honesty in the discharge of their duties.
The governor added that both the permanent secretaries and the directors in the state would undergo retreat as they play a critical role in policy formulation and implementation.
