Agency Report

By Sani Idris

A Bill and Melinda Gates-funded project in Nigeria, has stressed the need for Kaduna State Government to increase its health budget, for adequate child and families wellbeing.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the organisaion, Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health (PACFaH@Scale), is anchored by Development Research and Project Centre ( DRPC).

It is a health accountability network of Nigerian civil society organisations working to catalyse national and state governments to make adequate provision for child and family health in Nigeria.

The Project Director in Kaduna, Mr. Aminu Babangida, made the call at a town hall meeting on the state’s 2023 draft budget, on Sartuday in Kaduna.

Aminu noted that the total size of the health budget decreased from ₦303 billion to ₦291 billion in the draft proposed for the 2023 budget.

He said it represented a 3.96 per cent decrease, compared to the revised 2022 budget while the total state’s recurrent budget was increased by 40.48 per cent and the capital budget reduced by 22.75 per cent.

He added that the health budget was also reduced from ₦38.75 billion in the revised 2022 budget to ₦38.20 billion in the draft proposed 2023 budget.

“This also shows a decrease of about 1.42 per cent,”he said.

Aminu explained that the health allocation, as a percentage of the state’s budget size, stood at 13.09 per cent, which he said was below
the 15 per cent recommended by the 2001 Abuja Declaration.

He further said that the health recurrent was increased by 19.05 per cent and its capital budget reduced by 11.04 per cent.

Aminu said that in spite of the decrease in the health budget, the State Primary Health Care Development Agency’s capital budget was increased by 8.28 per cent, while its recurrent budget increased by 33.45 per cent, and capital budget reduced by 1.78 per cent.

He urged the government to increase the health budget and ensure timely releases of funds for various health budget lines and provide adequate funds for routine immunisation, family planning, and primary health care under one roof programmes and activities.

He also called for a reverse of the reduction of the family planning funding in 2023, to sustain a culture of dedicated budget lines for transparency
and accountability.

Aminu also called for the need for the government to ensure realistic budgeting and programmes to be included in the proposals to be those that the state would have the resources to implement.

Earlier, the Commissioner, Planning and Budget Comission, Hajiya Umma Aboki, said the idea behind the town hall meeting was to promote fiscal transparency by ensuring citizens’ participation in Kaduna State’s budget processes.

She noted that the 2023 draft Budget being discussed was uploaded few days ago online, to ensure its openness and accessibility for public scrutiny, observations, comments, criticisms and suggestions.

She explained that in preparing the draft budget, a universal and unified approach was applied, covering all sectors of the state’s economy, including education, healthcare, governance, agriculture, trade and Industry as well as ICT.

She noted that the state was inclined towards addressing fundamental issues which would build its resilience to economic shocks and limit its range of policy responses.

She, however, said that tougher decisions needed to be made in the future, including greater diversification of the state’s revenue base, to further lessen reliance on federal allocations.

Aboki further said that the state was expected to improve investments in infrastructure development, as well as in education and healthcare, which together took about 70 per cent of the proposed budget.

“This is aimed at quickly easing the economy of the state out of the current rigorous conditions towards a more self-sustaining profile,” she said.

“With the formulation of this initial draft, your engagement, participation, and input constitute the next necessary step.

“Through this, the Kaduna State Government aims to foster partnership and build trust with the citizens.

“The citizens have important roles to play in the budgeting process and the Kaduna State Government has sought to facilitate this in the best possible ways, taking full advantage of our modern realities,” Aboki said.

Also, Gov Nasir Elrufa’i, represented by the Kaduna Comissioner for Public Works, Mr Thomas Gyang, said when he assumed office in 2015, the public consultation mechanism in governance was not at the current level.

He said that as a responsive government, they recognised early, the need to engage citizens in every step of the governance process, and deliberately institutionalised town hall meetings as an avenue for citizens and government to engage, exchange ideas, and obtain feedback.

According to him, that approach to governance ensured that projects and policies of his government remained people-centered, especially in the spirit of Open Government Partnership pioneered by the state.

“As an administration, we paid attention to creating new and strengthening existing public institutions to be stronger than any powerful individual.

“This is evident in the verifiable successes recorded by many, if not all of the state’s department, ministries and agencies,” El-Rufai said.

He further said that in June 2019, shortly after commencement of the second term, the government launched the Urban Renewal Programme to modernise the three major cities.

He reiterated his resolve to ensure the finishing of all ongoing projects before the transition in May 2023, as his administration approaches its twilight.

NAN reports that the proposed Kaduna 2023 Budget total size was ₦291.9 billion with recurrent estimates of ₦126.8 billion
while capital estimates is ₦165.09 billio

The proposal was tagged “Budget of Continuous Growth and Development”.

Civil Society Organisations, NGOs, Pressure Groups, among others, in attendance at the meeting made contributions and called for amendments and adjustments in various components of the draft budget.(NAN)

Zamfara Govt shuts broadcast stations over violation of order

NEWS AGENCY OF NIGERIA

October 16, 2022 2:26 PM

Zamfara Government has ordered the shutting down of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Gusau and the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN)’s Pride FM for allegedly violating government order and journalism practice.