By. Kabir Wurma
The United Nation Children Funds UNICEF, has said, 88 Percent of Children Under the ages of five in Kebbi, Zamfara and Sokoto states are multi- dimentionally Poor In terms of access to social services.
UNICEF Social Policy Specialist, Sokoto Field Office Isah Ibrahim, stated this while presenting paper at a 2 Day Workshop to Strengthen the Analysis of Child Poverty Measurement for the three states of Sokoto, Zamfara and Kebbi holding in Birnin Kebbi, capital of Kebbi State organised by the Sokoto state Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning in- collaboration with UNICEF.
He said, the poverty rate was as a result of lack of access to services such as Nutrition, Education, Immunization amonsgt others.
“45 percent of children in Kebbi State are not fully immunised while 89 percent of children in Sokoto and Kebbi states are not fully immunised”,
According to him, the objectives of the workshop was increasing government partnership awareness on the current demand for quality data generation, monitoring and analysis on children through the state routine data generation system and to also come up with a road map on the institutionalization of child poverty measurement.
He added that, it is also to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the three states bureau for statistics in generation and producing routine child poverty data.
The Head of the Civil Service of Kebbi State, Safiyanu Garba Bena, represented by the Permanent Secretary General Administration, Carbonate office, Suleiman Sani Augie, while commending UNICEF for organising the workshop said, the workshop was timely when the 3 states are clamoring for social protection and data for effective planning and development.
