Kaduna Committed To Child-friendly Budget – Commissioner

Kaduna State government has restated its commitment to a child-friendly budgeting to improve the welfare and wellbeing of children in the state.

The commissioner for Budget and Planning, Muhktar Ahmed, stated this in Kano while declaring open a five-day workshop for the state’s Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) implementation team, which the commission organised with support from the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF).

He called on the directors related to the children’s desk to always follow up on their budgets to ensure the timely and effective implementation of their set programmes.

According to him, good planning and budgeting enhance good governance; as such, the workshop would provide a platform for the team to improve their skills and understand more about the nitty-gritty in the budget process to improve governance.

“This workshop comes at a critical time as we consolidate efforts to align our budgeting process with the MTEF, Sector Implementation Plans (SIPs), and the principles of Programme-Based Budgeting (PBB).

“These tools are not merely technical innovations—they are strategic enablers for improved fiscal discipline, better resource allocation, and stronger accountability to the citizens of Kaduna State.”

Ahmed noted that the workshop would hold rigorous sessions on the standard MTEF and budget preparation process, the use of the programme segment of the national chart of accounts, sector situation analysis, and practical applications of the MTSS costing templates. These sessions would aim to ensure that budgets are evidence-based, gender and social inclusion compliant, and directly responsive to the state’s development priorities.

While thanking UNICEF for their continued partnership and technical support in strengthening their public financial management systems, he said the training is like a refresher for the participants, giving them more insight into world best practices in preparing a very good budget for the state’s development.

In her remarks, Wakidara Mavis Akila, social policy officer at  UNICEF Kaduna Field Office, said the workshop aimed to advocate for child-sensitive budgeting by enhancing the capacity of relevant stakeholders on programme-based budgeting.

It is important because we want to see the issues of children especially in the four focal areas of health, education, WASH, and social protection reflected in the budget.

“This is important because they are in the process of finalising the MTEF and other budget processes,” she stated.