
Even though the Kaduna State Government led by Governor Nasir el-Rufai is blazing the trail by being the first state government to make a budget available for Child Spacing services aimed at reducing maternal and child mortality, the fund has been realized to be far from being adequate.
This was the outcome of a technical session conducted by groups on day-two of the Step-down Training on Budget Monitoring, Analysis and Scorecard System in Kaduna on Thursday.
At the conclusion of the exercise, groups discovered that only N34.38 was earmarked for each woman of child bearing age in Kaduna State.
From the data available to the groups, the total number of women within child bearing age Nigerian in Kaduna State was estimated at 1,838,942.
With the release of N100m approved by Governor el-Rufai for the 2017 budget, the estimated money for each woman was calculated to N34.38.
With the reducing of the 2018 Child Spacing budget to N75m, there is even less meant for each woman.
Earlier when speaking, Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiatives (NURHI) 2 Kaduna State Team Leader, Kabir Abdullahi while presenting a lecture on Basic Calculations for Budget Analysis at the State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (SPHCDA), Kaduna on Thursday, said that participants were been taught how to calculate budget.
He explained that though the budget of a preceding year might seem to be more, inflation factor might make it less in value.
“That there is an increase in votes for a year does not necessarily translate to increase in budget of a preceding year.
“This may be as a result of inflation.
“We need to distinguish between NOMINAL and REAL values in analysing budgets, ” he told participants.
He explained that a research conducted in 2011 showed that not less than N120 was required for child spacing for each woman, expressing fears that with the inflation influence over the years, much more may even be required in 2018.
