A WikkiTimes review of North western states expenditure on women affairs has shown that Zamfara state did not spend up to 5% of its budget on women affairs in 2023.
This report examines the ministry of women affairs budget for Jigawa State, Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara State.
A review by WikkiTimes on the Jigawa state budget performance shows that the Jigawa state ministry of women affairs budgeted the total sum of N3.212 billion as its 2023 budget expenditure.
The ministry could only expend N352. 788 million of the budget, which means just 11% percent of the budget, was used.
Also, of the N352.788 million spent, 128.831 million was used for personnel expenditure while for overhead expenditure N20.776 million was expended.
For the Capital expenditure Jigawa Ministry of women affairs spent N201.122 million
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Zamfara State
In Zamfara State the actual budget for the ministry of women and children affairs was N1.796 billion, while the actual expenditure stood at N70.921 million. This represents just 3.9% of the budget performance in 2023.
Of the N70.921 million spent, 37.982 million was used for personnel expenditure while for overhead expenditure N26.040 million used.
For the capital expenditure N6.900 million was spend.
Sokoto State
In Sokoto State the 2023 actual budget for the ministry of women affairs was 3.705 billion, while the actual expenditure for Q1-Q3 performance stood at N166.842 million. This represents just 4.5% per cent of the budget performance.
Of the 166.842 million spent, personnel expenditure stood at N66.842 million while N100 million was used for the capital expenditure.
Overhead expenditure recorded was (0) Zero naira.
Kebbi State
Kebbi state budget N2.356 billion for the ministry of women affairs in 2023, while the spending of the ministry for the Q1-Q3 performance was at N1.198 billion.
This means 50.8% of the budget was expended.
Of the N1.198 billion spent, personnel expenditure stood at N42.511million while N1.129 billion was used for the capital expenditure and for the overhead N18.312 million was spend.
This shows that, among the Northwestern state budgets reviewed for the ministry of women affairs only Katsina and Kebbi State was able to use over 50% of its budget, with Katsina as the highest with 72% total expenditure.
While Zamfara State and Sokoto didn’t use up to 5% percent of its budget. The least is Zamfara with just 3.9 percent of its budget spent.
There have been calls for investment in women affairs. Experts have argued that investments in women affairs will help steer the nation’s development.
Low budget performance means that the ability of the ministry to fund projects will be handicapped, as absence of funds will lead to poor budget implementation.
