The Zamfara State Government says it is collaborating with the United Nations donor agencies for the effective implementation of programmes to improve citizens’ well-being.

The Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Abdulmalik Abubakar-Gajam, disclosed this on Thursday in Sokoto.

He said the state was confronted with a myriad of challenges that desired collaborative support, adding that donor agencies were chased away by previous administrations in the state.

The commissioner said when Governor Dauda Lawal assumed office; he made efforts to address the challenges by inviting the donor agencies back to the state and strengthening the relationship.

He said the state had designed a Medium Term Expenditure Framework and collaborated with UNICEF on a 10-year-strategic plan to develop the state.

Mr Abubakar-Gajam said that the present administration had declared a state of emergency on education, agriculture, security and health sectors, allocating a higher budget.

He said that the education sector was allocated about N55 billion to create opportunities for more than 20,000 students sitting at home without taking final year secondary school examinations.

He stated, “Some children have to trek about three kilometres to access primary education in some settlements along with a growing number of out-of-school children which is highly alarming. Security challenges led to the closure of many schools, with poor and inadequate infrastructure to cater for the growing students’ population in the state. To address the menace of out-of-school, the present administration has within the shortest period inaugurated a model Almajiiri school.’’

He said that when the present administration took over, there was no functional general hospital, no equipment, and manpower was inadequate.

He stated, “The absence of all these resulted in poor services and death of many patients. When we came on board, only 108 medical doctors catered for 5.8 million people in 147 political wards of the state, with poor agricultural programmes in spite of the abundant agricultural opportunities in the state. The present administration has allocated N33 billion to the health sector which paved the way for upgrading many primary healthcare centres to general hospitals.’’

He said that 600 communities benefited from livestock business support and 19,000 farmers were supported with inputs to boost their productivity.

The commissioner added that 10,000 persons enjoyed N50, 000 cash transfer to enhance their livelihoods.

According to him, the international agencies assisted the state in developing an improved standard social register which captured all categories of vulnerable persons.

“This makes it easy for the downtrodden to access support directly without the interference of middlemen. With donor agencies’ support, the state at present has Social Protection and Child Protection Laws which guarantee equitable and quality policies friendly to women, children and physically challenged persons. The relationship has strengthened access to World Bank grants and has complied with operational guidelines of paying back after execution of the project,” he said.

Mr Abubakar-Gajam said that the state was the first to implement the NG-CARES programme with an appreciated social register free of manipulation.

He explained that the collaboration had facilitated the support of thousands of vulnerable persons, and Internally Displaced Persons whose figure stood at more than 500,000 among others.

(NAN)