By Wole Adedeji, Ilorin
A virtual meeting of the Kwara State Executive Council has approved the restructuring and split of some government ministries, which is said to achieve greater efficiency, ensure effective coordination of mandates, and accommodate developmental needs of the 21st century.
A memorandum to the effect was presented by the Head of Service, Mrs Modupe Oluwole, at the meeting held on Friday evening and chaired by the governor, Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq.
A statemenmt by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor; Rafiu Ajakaiye, said that the cabinet approved that the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development be excised from the current Ministry of Enterprise, while the latter is renamed Ministry of Business, Innovation and Technology.
This, he said was meant to drive the state’s huge investments in innovation and technology.
Also, the old Ministry of Tertiary Education, Science and Technology is now Ministry of Tertiary Education while the ‘mammoth’ Ministry of Works is to give birth to the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, designed to concentrate on the challenge of housing and urbanisation as “drivers of economic development.”
The Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development is split to birth Ministry of Women Affairs and Ministry of Social Affairs for efficiency in its core responsibilities, particularly because of the increasing scope of issues relating to women globally.
Also, the Ministry of Sports and Youth Development is now Ministry of Youths Development, coming on the heels of the recent creation of the Kwara State Sports Commission, that now has the obligations to streamline and coordinate sporting activities and promotion in the state.
The cabinet also approved the carving out of the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development from the current Ministry of Finance and Planning, leaving the finance segment of the old ministry to stand on its own.
It was said that the “responsibility of planning has evolved into diverse and well-developed branches, which makes it expedient to make it a full-fledged ministry…to enhance robust and seamless planning process,” as well as allow for a separate Ministry of Finance, which is also large and critical to the fiscal success of the government, to optimise its focus.”
Each of these ministries – now 20 in total, up from the 16 before – would be manned by separate Permanent Secretaries, while the existing directorates in each of them would subsist.
The Head of Service also briefed the council on the recent Kwara Geographic Information Service Law 2020, which stipulates that the Service will coordinate and superintend over the Office of the Surveyor-General, Bureau of Lands, Physical Planning Authority and Urban and Regional Planning, according to Ajajaiye’s statement.
