The Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civil Education (CHRICED) has trained some officials in the Kumbitso and Gwale areas of Kano State, northwest Nigeria, on tracking of maternal health fund.

This was made known by the Executive Director of CHRICED, Ibrhaim Zikirullahi, during a one-day ‘Training of Monitors on Maternal Health Expenditure Tracking in Gwale and Kumbotso LGAs’.

Zikirullahi said the training sought to raise the collective consciousness of citizens on their rights and responsibilities about the quality of maternal care in their respective communities.

According to him, the training was one of the key processes in preparation for monitoring the implementation of the healthcare budget in various primary healthcare centres (PHC) across the state.

‘Your work as monitors is even more important because there is a need to continuously scrutinise the expenditure cycle to establish if maternal health funds are trickling down to the PHCs at the local level’, he said.

‘The importance of this work, apart from its foundational basis in the constitution, comes from the fact that there are now a number of sources from which monies are pouring into the health sector in Kano State.

‘Apart from the budget, other sources of health funds pouring into the health sector include: the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), the Contributory Health Scheme, the Kano Health Trust Fund and even the Basic Health Provision Fund, among others’, he added.

‘With such a quantum of financial resources coming into the health sector, we need to know how well it is translating into quality maternal health services for the good people of Kano State’.

Source: CHRICED

Photo source: CHRICED