The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the CSOs were in the commissioner’s office to discuss the 2016 budget, especially as it relates to the health  sector.  The organisations were working on Maternal Newborn Child Health (MNCH) programme. Gummi said that the state government budgeted over N4 billion for the 2016 fiscal year to the health sector for procurement of malaria drugs and other health services.

He added that the government recently approved the release of N1.5 billion for the expansion and renovation of some general hospitals in the state. He noted that “we have already distributed the drugs across all the healthcare centres in the state, to be given to malaria victims free of charge, while the renovation and expansion of selected hospitals will commence soon.”

The commissioner assured that in spite of economic challenges faced by the state and the country, the present administration would continue to release funds to the health sector to ensure effective implementation of the budget. He commended the organisations for the visit and contributions to healthcare delivery in the state.

Earlier, the Deputy Coordinator of the Coalition of CSOs, Mr Joel Sani, said the visit was to appeal to the commissioner for timely release of funds budgeted to the health sector. Sani said that the visit was in line with the CSOs responsibility of tracking budget implementation across key sectors with a view to ensuring transparency and accountability in public funding.

Source: Leadership Online