By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
In continuation of engaging the general public to get their inputs captured into the Bauchi State 2025 proposed budget, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) funded State Accountability, Transparency and Effectiveness (USAID State2State) Activity has organised a One Day Consultative Meeting for Donor and CSOs Partners and Bauchi State Ministry of Ministry of Budget, Economic Planing and Multilateral Coordination (MoBEP).
The objective of the consultative according to Habila Salem, the Citizens Engagement and Capacity Building (CECB) specialist of USAID State2State Activity was to:
- Build consensus on the need to sustain or increase budget allocation to health, education, and WASH sectors in Bauchi State
- Strengthen collaboration for increased budget allocation to health, education, and WASH in the ongoing 2025 Bauchi state budget formulation process
- Identify issues and challenges in Bauchi State budget Process and make recommendations for improvement
- Agree on action points and next steps for improve budget allocation and performance related to health, education, and WASH sectors
During the meeting, presentation on the current 2024 budget performance in the priority sectors of Health, Education and WASH were made by the officials of the State Budget Ministry.
While discussing the budget performance in the priority sectors, participants agreed that WASH Sector is not doing well and that there is need for the State Government to increase funding in that sector.
The participants also called on the State Government to improve budget releases in health and education sectors.
Other recommendations made at the end of the meeting were centred on capacity building training on sound memo writing and deeper understanding of the budget process for the directors of planning, research and statistics (DPRS) and other high level civil servants.
Also it was agreed by participants that WASH MDAs to divice channels on how to be harmonizing their reports on implementation of its programs and activities with a view to having the budget ministry capture it’s performance in their quarterly reports and tracking of implementation.
In his closing remarks, Bauchi State Commissioner of Budget, Economic Planing and Multilateral Coordination, Alhaji Aminu Hammayo said the consultative engagement between the ministry , donors and CSO partners has further strengthened the resolve of the ministry to address gaps in the State budget to further make it more citizens driven process.
Represented by the permanent secretary of the ministry, Jibrin Mohammed Yusuf, the Commissioner said that the ministry will keep devising more innovative ways of engaging the public in the preparation of subsequent State Budgets, pointing out that the consultative meeting with the donor and CSO partners has been engaging and will add value to the budget process.
He further urged CSOs in the State to keep tracking the budget process and implementation with a view of strengthening performance for improved service delivery.