By Habibu Harisu
The United Nations Children Fund’s (UNICEF) has lamented that nutrition supplements meant for malnourished children in some communities in Sokoto State are being stolen and sold in the market.
UNICEF’s Chief of Field Office in charge of Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states, Mr Micheal Juma, expressed concerns over the theft of the items during the quarterly policymakers’ meeting on Wednesday in Sokoto.
Juma, who was represented by Mr Abraham Mahama, noted that the nutrition supplements were provided by donors and distributed to healthcare centers in different communities aimed at enhancing the lives of malnourished children.
He lamented that some bad elements in the system connived with traders and engaged in selling the supplements to unintended persons.
He stressed that the supplement were openly sold in markets while on investigation at the designated stores, UNICEF discovered that personnel stocked cartons of supplements with stones and other objects to cover their nefarious acts.
Juma urged community members and stakeholders in the healthcare sector to intensify vigilance against diversion of prepared nutrition supplements in the state.
Juma also urged Sokoto government to join other states in appointing state’s Statistician General that would fastrack data collections, prudence, preservation and dissemination inline with modern trends.
He highlighted that most of the key indicators in the state portrayed very poor indices such as; antenatal care, immunization, mortality rates, healthcare seeking behaviours and social behavioural change.
According to him, indices on healthcare Infrastructures, power and water supply, competent healthcare workers, client not trusting service providers along with others were not encouraging in the state.
In his presentation, the UNICEF Social Protection Specialist, Mr Isa Ibrahim, dwelled on the state’s 2024 Budget performances, areas that need alignments such as nutrition sector with recorded zero allocation along with some areas recording high concentration of capital expenditure which has less impacts to the citizens.
Ibrahim also anchored Juma’s call on appointment of substantive Statistician General in the state to harness data prudence and accessibility using standard systems, stressing that absence of Statistician General is a vacuum and gap which is needed to be abridge.
He explained that the objectives of quarterly meeting comprised; to sensitize stakeholders on activities, advocate increased inclusion of children on policies, prioritizes joint partnerships, advocate optimum data usage and budget performance.
Earlier, the Sokoto State Deputy Governor, Alhaji Idris Gobir, assured government maximum support to all donor agencies activities describing the presentations as awakening call to government officials to amend anomalies.
Alhaji Balarabe Kadadi, the state Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, said UNICEF and other donor interventions were critical toward addressing the state’s challenges.
Kadadi noted that collaborations remained key to improve service efficiency and ensured value for money on budget formulation and implementation.
The meeting was organised by UNICEF in collaboration with the Sokoto State Government to discuss activities, successes, challenges and offer solutions to lingering challenges.
Source: PMNews