According to the commissioner, education had about 27 percent increase in the 2023 propose draft budget, which showed the Kaduna State Government’s determination in providing quality education at all school levels, through the maintenance of functional school administration and adequate financial support.
Our correspondent reports that Kaduna is one of the states housing a huge number of out of school children with the figure put at 524,670.1, due to insecurity.
Umma noted that Kaduna State was the only state in the country that had continued to provide 40 percent of its appropriation to education and health in the last seven years.
She said, “Despite the fall in revenues, we have also allocated the health sector with the proposed 2023 budgetary allocation sum of N23.4 billion.
“This administration bears the burden for the delivery of quality health care in the state. This is executed in line with the goals stated in the 2016 National Policy on Health: ‘A disease free and productive citizenry’ and achieving universal health coverage for all Nigerians.”
“The Kaduna State Government took the lead in public health financing by dedicating at least 15% of its budget to supporting and strengthening services in Primary Healthcare Centers, upgrading health infrastructure, developing public-private partnerships for the improvement and sustainability of the health sector, and providing ample medicines, consumables, vaccines and other technologies.”
She said the government had developed a draft budget of continuous growth and development to the tune of N291,932,185,576.34, comprising of recurrent estimates of N126,833,534,781.40 and capital estimates in the sum of N165,098,650,794.94.
“The 2023-2025 draft budget was prepared based on the macro-economic assumptions, which sees crude oil price at $70 per barrel, production benchmark at 1.69 million barrels per day and exchange rate at N435.17/$1.
“The 2023 draft budget was prepared on the expectation that the base effect would decline as economic activities normalise in the non-oil sector, meaning that the economy will grow at much faster pace during the year in view,” she added.
The state governor, Nasir el-Rufai while making his remarks at the town hall meeting said as his administration would rap up in few months, all the ongoing projects would be completed.
“These roundtable approaches to governance have ensured that projects and policies of our government remain people-centred, especially in the spirit of Open Government Partnership which was pioneered by the Kaduna State in Nigeria.
“As a responsive government, we recognised 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, co- create and obtain feedback.”
The Project Director Development Research and Project Centre Global Initiative for women and Children, Aminu Babangida, lamented that their findings showed that there was a decline in the health proposed 2023 draft budget compared to previous years.
