From Umar Danladi Ado, Sokoto
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has urged the Sokoto state government to join other states in appointing State Statistician General that would fast-track data collection, preservation and dissemination in line with modern practices.
UNICEF’s Chief of Field Office in Sokoto, Mr Micheal Juma, made the appeal during the quarterly policymakers meeting on Wednesday in Sokoto.
The meeting was organized by UNICEF in collaboration with the Sokoto State Government to discuss activities, successes, challenges and solutions to lingering challenges.
Juma, who was represented by Mr Abraham Mahama, urged community members and stakeholders in the healthcare sector to intensify vigilance against the diversion of prepared nutrition supplements in Sokoto state.
Noted that the prepared nutrition supplements were provided by donors and distributed to healthcare centres in different communities aimed at enhancing the lives of malnourished children.
The Chief field officer also lamented that some bad elements in the system connived with traders and engaged in selling the supplements to unintended persons.
He stressed that the supplements were openly sold at markets while on an investigation to designated stores; UNICEF discovered that personnel stocked cartons of supplements with stones and other objects to cover nefarious acts.
He highlighted that most of the key indicators in the state portrayed very poor indices such as antenatal care, immunization, skilled birth child delivery, mortality rates, healthcare-seeking behaviours and social and behavioural change.
According to him, indices on healthcare Infrastructures, power and water supply, competent healthcare workers, and clients not trusting service providers, along with others, were not encouraging in the state.
In his presentation, the UNICEF Social Protection Specialist, Mr Isa Ibrahim, dwelled on Sokoto State’s 2024 Budget performances, areas that need alignment, such as the nutrition sector with recorded zero allocation, along with areas with high concentration of capital expenditure, which has less impact on the citizens.
Ibrahim also anchored Juma’s call for the appointment of a substantive Statician General in the state to harness data prudence and accessibility using standard systems, stressing that the absence of a Statician General is a vacuum and gap that needs to be bridged.
He explained that the objectives of the quarterly meeting comprised sensitising stakeholders on activities, advocating increased inclusion of children on policies, prioritising joint partnerships, advocate optimum data usage and budget performance.
Earlier, the Sokoto State Deputy Governor, Alhaji Idris Gobir, assured the government of maximum support to all donor agencies’ activities, describing the presentations as an awakening call to government officials to amend anomalies.
Alhaji Balarabe Kadadi, the State’s Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, said UNICEF and other donor interventions were critical toward addressing the state’s challenges.
Kadadi noted that collaborations remained key to improving service efficiency and ensured value for money on budget formulation and implementation.
