Govt cuts tertiary Institutions' subventions

The Kwara Government says it has cut the subventions of seven tertiary institutions in the state from N3.6 billion to N517 million.

The State Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Demola Banu, made this known in a statement released in Ilorin on Sunday.

Banu added that the government had so far disbursed the sum of N430, 388, 359.24 as subventions to the seven State-owned tertiary institutions in 2016.

He explained that the government had reviewed the subventions accruing to the institutions by deploying mechanisms to block loopholes and wastages in the system.

The commissioner said that an outstanding balance of N86, 996,421.7 would be released in August.

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

Banu said that after the review, it became obvious to the government that the internal revenue generated by some of the affected institutions were enough to meet their financial obligations.

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

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

He 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 was not sustainable.

He also said that school authorities should be prudent in the utilisation of financial resources in order to make their institutions gain some degree of financial autonomy.