About N800 million is to be expended by UNICEF in Katsina State on health and water development programs, this year, UNICEF Chief Zonal Officer in charge of Katsina and Kano States, Padmavath Yedla, has said.

 

Yelda, who said this during an advocacy visit to the state governor, however stressed the need for the payment of N352 million counterpart fund for effective execution of the projects. She said this year’s programme will focus on maternal mortality, malnutrition and girl child education, adding that there is need for reliable data from relevant authorities.

 

She said five operational vehicles and ten motorcycles would  be given to some local government areas to ensure effectiveness of the programme.

 

Responding, Governor Aminu Masari said already data on primary school was available and that of secondary school would  soon be available. He said the UNICEF office should liaise with the state Ministries of Health and Water Resources for a realistic approach to the exercise. 

 

 

In a related development, a DFID funded programme, Women for Health, has spent over  N200 million on improving facilities and building manpower capacity in some health  institution in the state.

 

The institutions include  School of Health Technology, Kankia and Daura, School of Nursing Katsina and Midwifery in Malumfashi.

 

The national programme manager, Dr. Fatima Adamu, said such investments were  meant to drive the health sector for greater services.

 

She said capacity building through training and retraining of staff of the institution  had huge impact of service delivery.

 

By Habibu Umar Aminu

Daiy Trust