Why Gov Yusuf pays N50,000 monthly stipend to Kano women

Spokesperson to Governor Kabir Abba Yusuf of Kano State, Mallam Sanusi Bature Dawakin-Tofa, has explained why his principal doles out ₦50,000 every month to about 5,200 women and widows across the 44 local councils of the state irrespective of religion or party affiliation.

In an interview with journalists, Dawakin-Tofa said the governor came up with the policy to reduce poverty and hunger in the state.

His words: “Yusuf is determined to reduce the magnitude of poverty and hunger in Kano state. As such, right from the campaign days, he promised the good people of Kano State that he is going to resuscitate the empowerment programme. And this time he decided to do it every month, and he kept his promise by providing N50,000 seed capital to at least 5,200 women every month.  At the moment, over 41,600 women across the 44 local governments of the state have benefitted. Those women are scattered across the 44 local governments and the beneficiaries are selected by the community representatives across party lines and irrespective of any political or social difference.

“The beneficiaries are selected based on their economic status because he wants to impact the genuine and real women in the communities so that they can be self-reliant. And it’s an agenda for poverty reduction under the Ministry of Humanitarian and Poverty Alleviation. Like I said earlier, these women are engaged in petty trading and most of them have enjoyed the empowerment programme and it changes their life.

“The second aspect of entrepreneurship in Kano State is the reopening of the 26 schools acquisition centres across the state. You know, during Kwankwaso’s second term between 2011 and 2015, he established 26 training institutes that were used to train youth both male and female. But the Ganduje administration decided to close down all the schools for a reason best known to them. And His Excellency promised to reopen all the institutes. And at the moment, he has already reopened about one third of them and is still ongoing. There’s horticulture.

There’s the Livestock Institute. There’s a Driving Institute. There’s an Informatic Institute. They are all reopened, and youths have been enrolled to get training on various threats and skills so that they can be self-reliant. Those youths that are trained in this training institute are going to also be provided with a capital so that they can start the business they learned during the training session. The training is a short one for just three months. Some of them are graduates because you need to have a skill far from being a graduate. So, these are some of the giant strides His Excellency is doing on the entrepreneurship aspect of his administration.

Asked why pensioners are very dear to the governor as he regularly responds to their demand, he said:

“Yes, you can say that again. They are very dear to the governor because he understands their plight. He knows that they were the ones that oiled the engine of government. There has been a complete social reform on the pension sub-sector because His Excellency inherited over 40 billion backlog of pension, gratuity from the previous administration of Ganduje and this is a very pathetic situation because some of these pensioners are dying because they don’t have what to eat; they don’t have the means to marry off their daughters. Some of them don’t have shelter; some of them don’t have clothes. A lot of social problems are associated with the pensioners in Kano State because they were not paid in the eight years of the Ganduje administration. So, this time around His Excellency has considered their plight and decided to alleviate the sufferings of pensioners being senior citizens of the state.

“Firstly, he approved and released the sum of N6 billion, which was distributed to the pensioners in 2023. In 2024, he also allocated additional N5 billion to pay for the pension gratuities and death benefits of the pensioners who died on duty. Also, in January 2025, His Excellency allocated and released another N5 billion for the pensioners; a total of N16 billion so far, which is almost like one third of the total amount that has been a backlog by the Ganduje administration. He’s also making it mandatory now that every quarter he will allocate some billions of naira to clear the backlog of the pensioners’ gratuity. That is why the Nigeria Union of Pensioners awarded him or recognised him as the most pensioner-friendly governor of the year in 2024. Also, the Nigeria Labour Congress also recognised him as the most labour-friendly governor of the year in January 2025 because he was the first governor that accepted and began to pay the minimum wage of N71,000 to Kano workers.

Dawakin-Tofa also explained why the governor is carrying out one form of reform or the other, especially in the education sector.

He said: “Well, in Kano, you know, there have been a lot of reforms going on. First of its kind is the declaration of a state of emergency on education because we inherited a very dilapidated and decayed sector. No classrooms, no toilet and water facilities, no quality teachers, nothing, no instructional materials. His Excellency has earmarked 29.5 per cent of the 2024 annual budget to the education sector because there is a need for funding. And in this 2025, His Excellency earmarked a total of 31 per cent to the education sector, which is way beyond the UNESCO declaration, the UNESCO benchmark. And I think there is no governor who has given a serious priority to education like Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf of Kano State.

“So, teachers have been recruited, about 5,000 of them and more are coming up this year. Also, teacher training and retraining are ongoing. There is also provision of instructional materials and free uniforms to the kids of Kano. About a million kids benefited this January with two sets of free uniforms.  Also there is a provision for school feeding so a primary school pupil in Kano gets one square meal while in school every day.