Sokoto State Government and UNICEF Wednesday signed a joint annual work plan worth N2.8 billion.
The work plan will cover sectors like health, education, water, sanitation and hygiene, and is meant to accelerate the realization of the right of all children and women to survival, development, protection and participation.
Speaking at the event which held in Sokoto, Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal said the state government has already fulfilled its agreement by paying the sum of N1.7 billion as counterpart funding.
He said the intervention of UNICEF in critical areas such as education, health, nutrition and sanitation has gone a long way in improving the lives of the people of Sokoto state.
While identifying education the main focus of his administration, Tambuwal said no meaningful human development will be attained without education.
He said the state government is fully committed to the execution of the annual work plan and assured of its full implementation.
The Governor thanked UNICEF for their various interventions in the country.
Earlier in his remarks, UNICEF’s Country Representative, Muhammad Fall, said his organisation’s partnership with Sokoto state government was the most outstanding partnership at the state level in Nigeria.
He commended Tambuwal for providing the highest allocation to education sector in Sokoto’s annual budget for 2016 and 2017, adding that given 28% of the budget in education is even beyond the requirement of the standard set up by UNESCO.
He further expressed UNICEF’s commitment to the realization of the terms of the work plan.
Also speaking, UNICEF’s Chief Field Officer for Sokoto, Mohammad Mohiuddin, said all the parties to the agreement are committed to working together to implement and achieve the results set out as UNICEF’s contribution in the United Nations Development Assistance Framework and its action plan for the years 2014 to 2017.
