Katsina State Governor, Dr Dikko Radda has said his administration has expended more than N120 billion in the last three years to revamp the educational sector across the state.

Radda, in a statement, stated this while recounting milestones his administration’s Building Your Future aganda had recorded since assuming office on May 29, 2023.

The statement, issued by his spokesperson, Ibrahim Mohammed, said the Radda administration constructed 170 junior secondary schools, and renovated 150 primary schools during period under review.

It said three Model and Smart Secondary Schools were also constructed in the state’s three senatorial zones, and equipped with robotics laboratories, and artificial intelligence facilities.

Quoting Radda, the statement said, “We constructed 170 junior secondary schools in communities that previously had none. We rehabilitated 300 schools and renovated 150 primary schools. We established ICT and Computer-Based Test centres in both rural and urban communities, because a child in the village deserves the same digital access as a child in the city.

“We built and commissioned Model and Smart Secondary Schools across all three senatorial zones — in Radda, Jikamshi, and Dumurkul. These schools have robotics laboratories, artificial intelligence facilities, 24-hour electricity, and internet access. And they are built exclusively for children from poor and rural backgrounds — children who, without this intervention, would never have seen the inside of such a facility”.

The statement also highlighted milestones achieved in the health sector by the Radda- led administration.

Further quoting Radda, it said, “Across the state, we massively rehabilitated and upgraded primary health centres to General Hospital standards — because primary healthcare should not mean inferior care. At General Amali Hospital, our Dialysis Centre now runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week, serving patients who previously had no choice but to travel out of State for treatment.

“We upgraded the operating theatres of our major specialist hospitals — the General Amadi Rimi Specialist Hospital, the Turai Umar Yar’Adua Maternal and Children Hospital, and General Hospital Katsina. We purchased advanced equipment to improve the quality of services our doctors and nurses deliver every day.

“And very soon, we will commission our Imaging Centre. The most advanced diagnostic facility in Northern Nigeria — right here in Katsina. No longer will our people travel to Abuja or Lagos for scans and diagnostics.”

In the agricultural sector, the governor said, “We invested N2.5 billion to modernise farming and boost mechanised agriculture. We built a multi-million naira Agriculture Mechanisation Centre that has empowered over 1,000 youths with skills and opportunities. We established 34 additional mechanisation centres at the local government level so that no farmer is too far from support.

“Through the Katsina State Sustainable Platform for Agriculture (KASPA), we have deployed over 400 tractors, 10 combine harvesters, and thousands of planters across the State. We assembled much of this machinery locally at our Central Mechanisation Hub in Tashar Bala, Batagarawa— creating jobs, training young mechanics, and building a repair team that sustains the equipment we have invested in.”

Moreover, it said the state now generates N3 billion monthly against N400 million it used to generate before the coming of the present administration.

“When we came into office, Katsina was generating N400 million monthly in internally generated revenue. Today, we generate N3 billion every month. That is not luck. That is the result of transparent, technology-driven governance”.

“A BudgIT-backed Tracka report ranked Katsina first among 30 states in project delivery, with an 85.84 per cent completion rate. Of 114 projects worth N26.79 billion reviewed, 89 were fully completed and 17 are ongoing. Not one was abandoned.

“The ranking did not come from my office. It came from independent monitors. And I am proud of it — not for myself, but because it means the people of Katsina are getting what they were promised,” the governor was quoted saying.