UNICEF, in collaboration with the Katsina government, has organised a capacity-building workshop on standard budgeting systems for the state’s technical implementation team.

The four-day workshop flagged off in Kano on Monday hinged on the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF), Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), and Medium-Term Sector Strategy (MTSS).

The aim is to strengthen the participants’ capacity to migrate to the new budgeting system, ‘programme-based budgeting’ in the state.

A similar training was recently organised for chairs of the Social Sector Committees of the State House of Assembly.

In his presentation, Olumide Ayodele, one of the resource persons, said Katsina was presently practising the incremental budgeting system, hence the need to train the MDA officials across the social sector.

According to him, the workshop’s main objective is to deepen the participant’s understanding of the best budget planning and preparation processes.

“It is also to strengthen their understanding of the comprehensive medium-term fiscal framework and its role in achieving policy-plan-budget linkage.

“The programme will equally reinforce their knowledge of programme budgeting and development of the state’s medium framework/fiscal strategy paper for 2025-2027 term expenditure.

“It will help develop the state’s education, health and agriculture medium-term sector strategies for 2025-2027, as well as produce a programme-based budget for the sectors,” Mr Ayodele said.

Earlier, the state’s Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Bello Kagara, said the exercise would improve their understanding of standard budget planning and preparation process.

The commissioner, who was represented by Mohammed Sa’idu-Danrimi, the director of planning in the ministry, said it would enable them to understand the MTSS key concepts to increase their capacity to develop MTEF and FSP for the state’s budget.

“We are gathered here to discuss the critical components of MTEF, including the Economic and Fiscal Update (EFU), Fiscal Strategy Paper (FSP), and Budget Policy Statement (BPS).

“These documents provide essential analysis and frameworks for policy and decision-makers to ensure sustainable economic growth and development.

“The EFU offers economic and fiscal analysis, assesses budget performance and identifies factors affecting implementation,” he said.

Mr Kagara added that the FSP determines aggregate resources for funding government projects and programmes, while the BPS divides resources into sector expenditure ceilings, aligning with policy priorities.

In her remarks, Fatimah Musa, a social policy specialist with UNICEF, Kano field office, said the gathering would help achieve a robust and result-oriented linkage between policy and budget.

She recalled that UNICEF had supported other states in achieving the transition, and Katsina State wouldn’t be different.

(NAN)