The Kano State Government is being asked to approve over N200 million for the state’s Library board in its 2021 budget proposal recently presented before the state Assembly for approval.
Defending the proposed estimates before the assembly’s Committee on Education on Wednesday, the Executive Secretary of the board, Dr. Ibrahim Ahmed said that if approved, the money would be used for the development and improvement of the state’s Library as it seeks to ensure improvement in youths’ patronage of the library services.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalled that on Oct 27, Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje presented a N147.9 billion budget estimate for 2021 to the assembly with 25 percent of the estimates being allocated to the education sector.
Ahmed explained that one of the major areas the board will focus on in 2021, will be the sensitization and mobilization of users to make the best use of the library in the 18 out of the 44 local governments areas of the state.
“I am glad to inform you that so far, we have transformed the over 5,000 capacity library from analog to digital with befitting electronic resources.“We also have a befitting E-learning centre with computers and other enabling resources for learning, Ahmed said, while urging the assembly to approve its request
Similarly, the library also has a Computer Based Test (CBT) centre with 400 capacity at a time, as part of its existing resources
Similarly, the Executive Secretary, Kano State Agency for Mass Education, Hajiya Halima Abdullahi noted that the Committee had cut down its earlier proposal of N82 million naira to N12 million, saying, “I believe the Committee cut down our earlier proposal due to the economic challenges occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“But I want to assure you that we are going to meet with members of the committee because there are a lot of issues we are going to discuss with them.”
According to her, the responsibilities of the agency has to do with educating youths, especially school drop outs, and to carry out such responsibilities, the agency needed funds to provide Vocational Training for the youths so as to make them self-reliant.
