By Abbas Bamalli
The Katsina State Government says it has benefited from UNICEF’s support to improve resource allocation in Social Protection (SP) programmes in the state.
The Commissioner of Budget and Economic Planning, Alhaji Bello Kagara, said this on Tuesday, while declaring open a five-day stakeholders’ workshop in Zaria.
Kagara said that the workshop, organised by the ministry, in collaboration with UNICEF Kano Field office, aimed at developing and costing MDAs’ SP annual operational plans for 2025.
Represented by the SP Director in the ministry, Alhaji Tijjani Umar, the commissioner said the operational plan was to guide the MDAs for effective implementation of the SP programmes under them.
He said that Gov. Dikko Radda deserved commendation for approving the establishment of a social protection department under the ministry.
Kagara said that as part of the governor’s commitment to the well-being of the people, he had approved the training of SP officers to ensure the effective implementation.
He pointed out that the ministry, together with UNICEF, had drafted a bill to enable them to establish a social protection agency in the state.
He further revealed that a bill had been drafted, reviewed and ready for sponsorship in the state House of Assembly.
Kagara further said: “Due to the importance of the SP programmes, a legislative social protection forum was recently inaugurated aimed to ensure proper allocation of funds to SP programmes.
“The ministry, with the support of UNICEF, has initiated a quarterly meeting of the SP Technical Working Group, where MDAs related to social protection present their progress reports.”
According to him, the objective of the workshop is to understand some basic concepts of SP, identify all SP interventions in the state, and identify its intervention’s budgetary provision.
He said that the workshop was also to develop a cost for SP annual operational plan and enhance the technical capacity of participants on SP operationalisation.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Alhaji Ibrahim Safana, commended UNICEF for supporting implementing agencies to execute various developmental activities in the state.
Safana, represented by the Director, Finance and Account of the ministry, Alhaji Abdul Usman, said that the annual operational plan would help and guide the state in effective resource allocation and mobilisation to deliver a wide range of SP services in all nooks and crannies of the state.
“The contents of the plan could be used for 2025 budget estimates and tagging of activities in the budget for various SP MDAs,” he said.
NAN
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