CSJ Presents 2023 Pre-Health Budget Memo To Stakeholders In Sokoto State

The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) has organised the Sokoto State USAID-SCALE validation meeting for the 2023 pre-health budget memorandum at Grand Shukura Hotel, 10 Kano Road, Magagin Gari, Sokoto.

The pre-health budget memo will serve as an advocacy tool for the right to health cluster and beyond to engage the Sokoto State Government and relevant stakeholders on improving healthcare outcomes in the State.

From the review of existing budget commitments conducted by CSJ, Sokoto State’s public budget allocations do not meet the requirement of the funding needed to achieve Universal Health Coverage. The pre-health budget memo recommends among other things that there should be popular participation in the preparation of the Sokoto State Health Medium Term Sector Strategy (MTSS) as well as the annual budget. This will ensure that the needs of the society are reflected and prioritised especially in a time of paucity of funds.

A representative of the Sokoto State Ministry of Health, Dr M. A Muhammed said the state is working to upscale investments in the health sector and called on the CSJ to support the ministry with technical support to ensure that the health sector makes a convincing case for more allocation in the face of other competing claims for funds.

Sani Garba from the Sokoto State Ministry of Information assured that the ministry will adopt the all in health governance approach in preventive health care advocacy.

According to Zainab Larai Tumaki from the Ministry of Budget & Economic Planning, Sokoto State the validation meeting of the pre-health budget memorandum is hinged on the principle of more money for more health and more health for more money.

“The MTSS preparation is on-going and any of the things you say here today is going to be aligned with the priorities in the document. In Sokoto State, we need to leverage resources from the funding partners so as to have enough resources for planning budget implementation,” she said.

Mamuda Shuaibu, the head of administration at the State Contributory Health Care Management Agency (SOCHEMA) Sokoto remarked that the state has not started benefiting from the equity fund from the consolidated revenue fund but “we have been supported by the EU and WHO to see how the government can benefit from these funds. Presently, we have covered all the 23 local governments, and we are presently 224 PHCs. We have reached 84% in enrollment and coverage in BCHF under the NHIS gateway.”

Mr Fidelis Onyejegbu, CSJ’s programme manager, Public Finance Management presented the Sokoto State pre-health budget memorandum to the participants. After the presentation, the 30 participants were divided into groups where they worked to review the draft pre-health budget document.