Kogi State Commissioner for women affairs and social development Hajia Fatima Kabir Buba has appealed to the state assembly to give an express passage to the proposed 2024 budget of N1,243,139,413 of the ministry.
Buba appealed on Saturday in Lokoja when she appeared before members of the Kogi State House of Assembly to defend her ministry’s budget.
The commissioner stated that the approval will not only secure the programs and projects of the Ministry in the coming year but will give a robust complement to the executive arms of government in delivering the dividends of democracy to their esteemed constituency.
According to Buba, the performance of the 2023 budget under the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development was far below expectations because of the deplorable economic situation of the country.
According to the commissioner, this has negatively impinged the ministry’s ability to effectively deliver on her core mandate for the year under consideration.
She said, “Given the above, I am appealing to this Honorable House to not only give the Ministry accelerated passage and approval but rally behind her to ensure that this budget gets the desired attention by the Government; to enable the Ministry to achieve its core mandate and objective behind its establishment in line with the present government’s policy direction.
“The assessment of the 2023 budget could have been near perfect if there were Correspondent releases of effective implementation of the laudable projects conceived by the Ministry in the budget lines, some of which were fundamentally statutory.
“It is therefore on this optimistic note that the Ministry is appealing to this honourable committee which has been partners in progress in the affairs of our constituents, children, women, widows, and persons with disabilities to expeditiously accelerate the passage and approval of the year 2024 budget estimate.
“Kindly assist in putting your weight behind the Ministry in her desire to lobby the government to facilitate the construction of a Kogi State Sexual Assault Referral Centre, an item which has been a recurring decimal in our state budget but is gradually becoming an embarrassment to us as a state,” she said.
