Kano State Government has vowed to track its health budget and ensure the release of funds to execute family planning programmes, woman and child health in the state.
Abubakar Yusuf, the state commissioner for health, made this pledge on Wednesday during a courtesy call by a civil society group, Kano State-Led Accountability Mechanism (KanSLAM) at the Ministry.
KanSLAM led by its co-chair, Maimuma Yakubu, is a coalition of Civil Society, Media and Government Officials which serves as an accountability, advocacy, evidence & transparency mechanism in Kano State, Nigeria.
While speaking, the Knowledge Management Chairperson KanSLAM, Nafisa Murtala, had earlier appealed that the Commissioner release the funds budgeted for the various activities.
“Without the release of funds, the increase in maternal mortality and morbidity would not be addressed,” Murtala said.
Another member, Hassan Gama, claimed that about N100 million was allocated in 2023 and N200 million in 2024 for the same project, but the funds were not been released.
Hassan who commended the state government for a level of accountability in the state’s health sector, solicited “support for the release on these family planning, RH and Integrated MMPH.”
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Reacting however, the health commissioner, Abubakar Yusuf, blamed directors in the ministry for the delays that resulted in the poor budget performance.
Yusuf claimed the government had long released the funds but the directors are the main drawbacks.
“Most of the directors are not doing too well, they are just used to unnecessary delays. Most of the time you see the budget performance is poor, it’s because of the delays,” he said.
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The commissioner, however, promised to track the budget and ensure the release of the 16% allocated for the family planning project and the counterpart funding.
Directing KanSLAM to the Directorate of Public Health, Yusuf claimed “The problem is with the departments.
“Any programme that is not seen moving, just query the department, I have been disturbing them to get the budget books on my table.” He added.
