Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, said on Monday his state was not one of the poorest in Nigeria, contrary to a current report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Tambuwal made this claim in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs, Malam Muhammad Bello.
The governor spoke while receiving a report titled: “Sokoto Development Plan: 2020-2025.”
In its April 2020 Nigerian Living Standards Survey (NLSS) report, NBS said nine of the 10 poorest states in Nigeria were from the northern region, listing Sokoto, Taraba, and Jigawa among the poorest in the country.
But Tambuwal said: “I do not intend to join issues with the NBS, but I appeal to them to come clear on their variables and how they do their assessments of poor states in Nigeria.
“We also want to know how NBS arrived at Sokoto being the poorest.
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“We know that, as a matter of fact, something must be fundamentally defective and wrong with their processes and the outcome of those processes.
“The fact of the matter is 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 Waq Commission (SOZECOM) alone, I am not aware that there is any state that is doing as much.”
The governor said his administration had spent N4 billion to uplift the businesses of over 200 small scale traders across the 23 local government areas of the state.
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