Kaduna Govt reiterates commitment to Cash backing of Nutrition Budget, Maternity Leave Extension

By Uangbaoje Alex, Kaduna

The Kaduna State Government has pledged commitment to increasing budget releases and utilization for nutrition programming and to also work to extend paid maternity leave from three to six months and to formulate legal framework for its implementation.

Senior government officials made the commitments when the National Secretariat of the Civil Society Scaling Up Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), led advocacy visits to different Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), from Monday 17th to Wednesday 19th 2025.

The advocacy visits which also have the State Nutrition Committee members and the media, was supported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

CS-SUNN is implementing the UNICEF partnership project known as “Increased Investment in Nutrition to Scale Up Quality Nutrition Services,” in 19 States.

Responding to the demands made by the team, Kaduna State Commissioner for Planning and Budget Commission (PBC), Mukhtar Ahmed, pledged that the state will make nutrition budget release a priority because of the importance it attached to saving the lives of babies and their mothers.

He said the state governor has the political will to drive the required change in the health and other sectors.

According to him, the Kaduna State government has not renegade in her commitment for health and education in the last 10 years which clearly shows that the political will is there and that the MDAs will do their part to ensure the funds are made available for implementation.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Dr. Aisha Sadiq, while speaking on behalf of the Commissioner, stated that nutrition is one of top priorities for the ministry.

She said the ministry will not relent in advocating for prompt cash backing of allocated funds for nutrition and the entire health sector because that is where the interest of the most vulnerable people in the society are addressed.

She assured that as soon as the state opens up employment, the health sector would be at the front burner and nutrition specialists will be prioritised so they can manage nutrition across MDAs.

“We are doing our best to improve the nutrition status in the State, particularly for women and children, and the Commissioner is fully committed to making sure the lives of the vulnerable people are improved. 

“Now regarding the cash backing, a lot of partners have been lobbying for the cash backing, even for family planning commodities. So there is actually a lot of push for that, and I’m sure His Excellency will do something about it soon.” Dr. Aisha added.

For the Commissioner of Agriculture, Murtala Dabo, his plans have gone from ensuring food security for the state to having nutrition security.

“Our most important new strategy we are adopting now is nutrition security. How do we hope to achieve that? Because we are the one that articulate all this in agricultural activities, and work on the whole value chain, the seed system.

“That is why deliberately we are propagating bio-fortification of our seeds, such as cereals, and because they are bio-fortified, they are lot more nutritious than the normal one.

“They may be eating normal maize, millet and sweet potato, but because it’s bio-fortified, it becomes richer. We are at the forefront in providing the vitamin A fortified maize and the rest of them. We are pushing to see that they are actually being bought at premium prices” He explained.

According to Sadiq Mamma Lagos, Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, every nutrition program is tied to the LGAs, because malnutrition is more prevalent at the grassroot level and as such his ministry is ready to drive the implementation of all nutrition programs in the State.

He promised to immediately convene a meeting with the LG Chairmen where CS-SUNN and the State Nutrition Committee will make presentations so that at the end of the meeting they will understand why they have to commit to nutrition in their various LGAs.

“I’m going to arrange a meeting between you and the 23 local government Chairmen, that day you will make a presentation to them about your program.

“On that day the key people like the directors of finance and the treasurers will be there so the can see the importance of your program and commit to them.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education, Rabiu Yunusa, promised that before the end of 2025, he would ensure all allocated funds for nutrition are spent adequately.

Speaking on the issue of extending the paid maternity leave from 3 to 6 months, the Executive Secretary, of the State Primary Healthcare Board (KADSPHCB), Dr. Bello Jamoh, said the board is reaching out to the State Assembly to create a legal framework to make the policy a law.

He noted that because the issue of nutrition is multi-sectorial, the board is matching funds for nutrition issues for the future and that a department has been created to coordinate nutrition programming and activities across MDAs.

“In few weeks from now the department will takeoff. So this is a concerted effort to tackle and address the issues of the origin of malnutrition and we’re even thinking of bringing in NOA to sensitive people on how to use locally available raw material to make relatively more nutritious food for themselves and for the children.” Dr. Jamoh added.

Leaders of the advocacy team, the Chairman of the State Nutrition Committee and Permanent Secretary, Planning and Budget Commission (PBC), Bashir Muhammed and the State Coordinator, CS-SUNN, Jessica Bartholomew, had earlier told their hosts that the essence of the visits was to amongst other things demand increasing budget releases and utilization for nutrition programming in state.

Extend the paid maternity leave from 3 to 6 months, enact a law to for it’s effective implementation and create a department for nutrition in the State.

They recognised the progress made by the government in the last 5 years, including providing N400m for the Child Nutrition Fund in 2024.

“We have seen the commitment of the government, especially the governor, to be able to put this commitment into practice as far as nutrition is concerned.

“We are saying in 2025, what do we have on the table? How are we going to sustain the current drive, the current push to reduce malnutrition in Kaduna states?

“We are also celebrating Kaduna for being the second state in Nigeria that has a policy on six months being maternity leave. But how can we push through to legislate it so that it becomes a law? They added.