Kebbi Govt. commends UNICEF for capacity building on Child-friendly budget

The Kebbi State Government has commended the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) for promoting capacity building of government workers and other stakeholders on child-friendly budgeting and public finance management. The state Acting Head of Service, Hajiya Aisha Usman, gave the commendation on Tuesday in Birnin Kebbi at the opening of a two-day joint capacity building workshop for  Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and the media.

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The workshop on Public Financial Management, Child-friendly budgeting was organised by UNICEF in collaboration with the governments of Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara states.

“We appreciate the UNICEF and other partners for investing in various sectors of development in the state. I believe with this workshop, more knowledge would be impacted to the participants. I believe it would enhance budgeting performance especially on children welfare across the three states,” Usman said.

While reiterating the commitment of the state to collaborate with more partners in various child development programmes, the acting Head of Service urged the participants to focus and learn for maximum benefit from the facilitators.

Also speaking, the Social Policy Specialist of UNICEF Sokoto Field Office, Mr Isa Ibrahim, said that the workshop was organised to build the capacity of CSOs, media and representatives from the budget office of MDAs on public financial management, child friendly budgeting in the states.

Ibrahim said that the workshop will enhance the capacity of participants to influence budgetary allocation for children across health, education and social protection in  the 2025 fiscal year budget.

“This is also to develop road map for effective citizen participation from the budget formulation to monitor and report budget performance in the states,” Ibrahim said.

The UNICEF policy specialist, who spoke on budget cycle, highlighted the need for collaborations to ensure right inputs from community members, best tracking and management policies.

The 45 participants comprising representatives from the CSOs, Media and Persons with disability drawn from Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states participated in the training.

NAN/Wumi