The Katsina government says it has benefited from UNICEF’s support in improving resource allocation in social protection programmes.

The Commissioner of Budget and Economic Planning, Bello Kagara, said this on Tuesday while declaring a five-day stakeholders’ workshop opening in Zaria.

Mr Kagara said that the workshop, organised by the ministry in collaboration with UNICEF, aimed at developing and costing MDAs’ SP annual operational plans for 2025.

The commissioner said the operational plan was to guide the MDAs in effectively implementing the SP programmes under them.

He said that Governor Dikko Radda deserved commendation for approving the establishment of a social protection department under the ministry.

Mr 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 effective implementation.

He pointed out that the ministry and 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.

Mr 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 workshop’s objective 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 the SP annual operational plan and enhance the technical capacity of participants in SP operationalisation.

Earlier, the permanent secretary of the ministry, Ibrahim Safana, commended UNICEF for supporting implementing agencies in executing various developmental activities in Katsina.

Mr Safana said 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)