Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s government has earmarked N6 billion for upgrading and equipping general hospitals across Kaduna in 2022.

This is contained in the 2022 budget of N278.6 billion signed into law by Mr El-Rufai on December 22.

In the document, N15.7 billion was earmarked for the health ministry as capital expenditure, out of which N7.4 billion would be expended on ongoing construction and equipping of the 300-bed specialist hospital.

It also showed that N282.9 million was allocated for the construction of isolation centres, procurement of consumables, COVID – 19 intervention and other public health emergency programmes.

The Kaduna government allocated N51.6 million to construct and renovate the standard accident and emergency unit at General Hospital Kafanchan, Saminaka, Birnin Gwari and Hajiya Gambo Sawaba General Hospital Zaria.

The construction of a new college of nursing and midwifery, Pambegua, got N281.7 million. The document showed N17.4 million was earmarked for 20 blood bank refrigerators for blood transfusion services in 20 secondary health facilities.

The document also showed that N370 million was allocated for constructing a trauma centre at Doka, while N28.9 million was earmarked for medical equipment maintenance across the 31 secondary health facilities.      

It further showed that N861.7 million was set aside as a counterpart for a malaria programme to strengthen systems for prevention, quality assurance, and quality control of malaria diagnosis and treatment.

Similarly, N62.6 million would be expended on drug-resistant tuberculosis, N188 million on Kaduna Emergency Nutrition Action Plan, and N50 million under the World Bank-supported Accelerating Nutrition Result in Nigeria.

Also, N50 million was earmarked as a counterpart fund for the Neglected Tropical Disease Control Programme.

The N15.7 billion allocated for capital expenditure was higher than the N9.1 billion allocated to the ministry in 2021, and N40.9 billion, representing 14.7 per cent of the N278.6 budget, was allocated to the health sector, with N28.6 billion earmarked for capital expenditure and N12.3 billion for recurrent expenditure.

In the document, Barau Dikko Teaching Hospital got N4.3 billion, of which N1.7 billion was earmarked for capital expenditure and N2.6 billion for recurrent.

Also, N90.3 million was allocated to Kaduna’s Contributory Health Management Authority, and N840 million was allocated as a one per cent consolidated revenue fund for free healthcare to vulnerable groups under the state health insurance scheme.

Similarly, the state government earmarked N661.3 million in 2022 for the College of Nursing and Midwifery, N269.4 million for capital project, and N391.9 million for recurrent. 

(NAN)