The Sokoto State Government has commenced a two-day capacity-building workshop for key stakeholders aimed at developing a two-year medium term expenditure framework in the state.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the two-day workshop held in Birnin Kebbi on Wednesday, was organised by Sokoto State Ministry for Budget and Economic Planning in collaboration with UNICEF.
Declaring the workshop open, the Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Dr Abubakar Muhammad-Zayyana, reaffirmed the administration’s commitment to ensuring substantial increase in child sensitive sectors budgetary allocation.
He noted that the training aligned with Gov. Ahmad Aliyu’s reform agenda, seeking to institutionalise best practices in budgeting, expenditure reporting and wealth distribution across the state.
“Our administration has made considerable progress in aligning Sokoto’s budgeting processes as this is part of our broader commitment to a scientific, inclusive, and realistic budgetary system that captures the needs of all segments of our society.”
The commissioner reaffirmed the readiness of government to continue investing in capacity building of personnel across Ministries, Departments and Agencies to enhance productivity and service delivery.
On his part, the UNICEF’s Chief of Field Office in charge of Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara States, Mr Micheal Juma, noted that UNICEF had been supporting Federal and State Governments in designing and implementing social policy programmes in the country over the years.
This, he said, was through using different approaches, contributing to the achievement of sustainable development goals, focusing on the realisation of child rights.
“This include support for reform of the development plans, annual budgeting, and medium-term budget processes, including engagement of the national and subnational governments.
“Programme-based budgeting (RBF) in the county is a government-initiated approach focused on promoting greater efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability of public spending by focusing solely and mainly on results,” he said.
According to him, it is a critical budgetary approach towards having effective, impactful, and sustainable spending on children.
“The transition to PBB in the country commenced in 2024 with a pilot phase with three portfolios in education, health, and agriculture across the three states of Zamfara, Katsina, and Kebbi.
“These states have successfully transitioned from the traditional mode of budget to PBB in their respective 2025 fiscal year budget with technical support from UNICEF.
“This trend had been driven by a combination of internal and external factors aligned to broader public finance reforms committed by the three state governments.
“This will be followed by other portfolios to be determined by the three states’ Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning.
“Given the technically demanding nature of PBB, UNICEF is building the capacity of the state officials, including the parliamentarians’ committee on finance and appropriation, before the start of the piloting in their respective states,” he said.
Juma added that UNICEF was planning to expand its programme-based budgeting initiative to six additional states in the country .
“These states include, Kaduna, Oyo, Benue, Cross River, Sokoto, and Gombe.
“The goal is to launch reforms that will introduce Programme-Based Budgeting (PBB) in 2026, ensuring alignment with the development plans of these states,” he said.
The field officer urged the stakeholders to start taking action for the 2026 budget, saying the aim was to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of Sokoto State Government spending by linking financial allocations to specific programmes and their intended outcomes.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Hajiya Maryam Ahmad-Barade, noted that the
partnership with UNICEF was yielding a lot of results in almost all the areas of the state development, saying that the current initiative by UNICEF to support governance was quite admiring.
“It may interest you to know that UNICEF programmes have direct alignment with the state priorities, putting into consideration the 9-point Smart Agenda of Gov. Ahmad Aliyu- Sokoto.
“The state government under the able leadership of the governor will continue to provide enabling environment for partners working in the state to aid the implementation of their programmes.
“Of course, women and children always remain the state government priority, as contained in the 9-point Smart Agenda of the governor, and that is why we are seriously working as government to ensure substantial increase in our child sensitive sectors budgetary allocation,” she said.
The workshop, Ahmad-Barade, said, was a great opportunity to share their thoughts and experiences which should enable the state to forge ahead in its journey towards the realisation of the envisaged objectives.
(NAN)
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