A non governmental organization, Family Health Advocates in Nigeria Initiative (FHANI) has commended Governor Nasir El-Rufai for his commitment to reducing maternal and child mortality rate in Kaduna State.
FHANI’s Hajia Hauwa Saulawa expressed this while lecturing participants of a two-day workshop on Step-down Training on Budget Monitoring, Analysis and Scorecard System in Kaduna on Wednesday.
She said the governor is committed at ensuring that maternal and child mortality is reduced.
Hajia Saulawa explained that because the governor wants to get the credit, he was the first Governor in the country to create a budgetline for child spacing.
“A budgetline of N100m was created in the Kaduna State 2018 budget for child spacing. Though the cash backing failed to come until March 2018,” she said.
FHANI said that as a result of the non spending of the 2017 budget for child spacing, the budget for 2018 was slashed to N75m.
She called on all stakeholders to put in efforts in ensuring that the budget for 2018 is equally released and spent on what it is budgeted for.
“Before we got the initial budget of N100m from His Excellency, we had to do advocacy to the State Assembly, where we explained that with the funds made available for consumables, the state and individual families will benefit more.
“The government will spend less on health needs and families will have better economic standards,” she added.
