Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State has said the state is not one of the poorest in the nation as indicated by a report by the National Bureau of Statistics.
He spoke on Monday when he received a report titled, ‘Sokoto Development Plan: 2020-2025’ at the Government House.
According to the April 2020 Nigerian Living Standards Survey (NLSS) report released by the NBS covering the year 2019, nine of top 10 poorest states in Nigeria are from the northern region with Sokoto, Taraba and Jigawa being the poorest.
Tambuwal said, “I do not intend to join issues with the NBS, but I appeal to them to come clear on their variable(s) and how they do their assessments of poor states in Nigeria; and then how they arrived at Sokoto being the poorest.
“When you look at the programmes we are implementing in Sokoto State, they are people-friendly. They are promoting and supporting the vulnerable, the poorest of the poor.
“Even what we are doing through Zakkat and Waqf Commission (SOZECOM) alone, I am not aware that there is any state that is doing as much.”
Tambuwal said his administration had spent N4bn on the uplift of the businesses of over 200 small scale traders across the 23 local government areas of the state.
“We believe that we are not poor and in due course it will unfold. We shall monitor the NBS and see what it will come up with in its next report, whether they will actually reflect the true position of Sokoto State in Nigeria in terms of rating of poor states,” the governor added.
