Muhammad Garba
Jigawa Maternal and Accountability Forum (JiMAF) has raised concern over the declaimed in the state health sector annual budgetary allocation.
The concern was raised during a stakeholder meeting for the 2024 Jigawa state health budget performance dissemination and 2025 approved budget analysis organized by the JiMAF and held on Monday at the State House of Assembly complex.
In his presentation, the Acting Chairman of JiMAF, Comrade Isa Mustapha, said the 2024 budget allocation to the state health sector was 9.9% against the 15% Abuja declaration, and also the budget performance was 78 as against 90 % signed with State Mutual Accountability Forum.
He however highlighted that, in 2025 the allocation also declined to 9.4 % describing the development as a source of concern for the state that has been battling with high rates of maternal and child death, high stunting rates, and other related poor health indices.
He said JiMAF recognized the progress made to reduce child and maternal deaths, improvement in immunization coverage, and the good steps taken to bridge the manpower gap in the sector.
However, he maintained that the continuous decline in the budgetary allocation will affect the overall goals of making effective basic healthcare services affordable and accessible for everyone in the state.
The group also faulted the state Ministry of Health’s snail face in raising Memos for accessing the budget allocation, which gives the impression of having allocation above the needs and consequently gives room for slashing the allocation in the subsequent budget year.
JiMAF then called on the state ministry of health to improve its procurement process to speed up the implementation of the state annual health budget for better results.
In his response, the Jigawa State Commissioner of Health, Dr Abdullahi Muhammad Kainuwa, stated that the procurement process, particularly for large capital projects, takes two to three months before awarding the contract.
However, he promised to explore more initiatives to strengthen and speed up the process without compromising the procurement act.
“I assure you that in this year of 2025, the budget performance will improve as we have already awarded the contracts. What remains is to pay the money according to the work progress.
“However, for other small projects, the procurement process is not as complex as that of huge projects, and we have already raised memos on many of such projects, “Dr Kainuwa stated.
