Kwara stops tertiary institutions’ subventions

THE Kwara State government has stopped the annual subventions to some of its institutions of higher learning, as it has discovered that the internal revenue generated by these institutions is enough to meet their financial obligations.

According to a statement made available to newsmen in Ilorin by the Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Demola Banu, this development followed the deployment of mechanisms in the state-owned institutions to block loopholes and wastages in the system.

Alhaji Banu said that after the review, it became obvious that these institutions can survive and run their operations on their internally generated revenue.

He asserted that this necessitated the need for the state government to cut or stop the annual subventions that were hitherto being collected by the institutions.

The commissioner disclosed that the government had stopped subventions to the Kwara State Polytechnic and the Kwara State College of Health Technology, Offa, as their IGR is enough to guarantee smooth running of the schools.

Meanwhile, the state government says it has so far disbursed the sum of N430,388,359.24 as subventions to seven of its tertiary institutions in 2016, and that an outstanding balance of N86,996,421.7 will be released this month.

The institutions include the Kwara State University (KWASU); Kwara State Colleges of Education in Ilorin, Oro and Lafiagi; Kwara State College of Arabic & Islamic Legal Studies; Kwara State College of Nursing, Oke-Ode; and the Kwara State School of Nursing and Midwifery, Ilorin.

Banu called on the management of all the state-owned institutions to be more innovative and resourceful in generating revenue for their schools, adding that the situation where government’s subventions are spent only on recurrent expenditure is not sustainable.