Katsina State Governor, Dikko Umaru Radda, has approved N500 million as counterpart funding for the Child Nutrition Fund, reinforcing the state’s partnership with UNICEF to tackle malnutrition and improve health outcomes.
Radda announced the approval on Sunday during a visit by the Chief of UNICEF Field Office in Kano, Shafeeq Ur-Rehman, whose office oversees programs in Katsina, Kano, and Jigawa states.
The governor said the collaboration with UNICEF was already yielding results, particularly in reducing cases of severe acute malnutrition. He noted that stabilization centers and outpatient treatment sites established through the partnership were recording fewer cases.
“We are seeing encouraging progress, and we remain committed to improving the well-being of our people,” Radda said.
He added that the state would include UNICEF’s request for an additional N1.2 billion in the 2027 budget, despite limited resources.
On education, the governor said his administration had recruited over 9,000 teachers and expanded training programs to improve learning outcomes.
In his remarks, Ur-Rehman commended Katsina for sustained investment in health, nutrition, education, and social protection. He said routine immunization coverage had more than doubled, while under-five mortality had declined significantly.
He also highlighted Katsina’s participation in a global pilot program on new World Health Organization guidelines for managing severe child malnutrition, currently underway in 10 local government areas.
Ur-Rehman noted that the Child Nutrition Fund had supported the supply of therapeutic food and essential nutrition commodities for children and urged increased funding to scale interventions.
He further praised the state for attaining Open Defecation Free (ODF) status in 2025, making it the second state in Nigeria to achieve the milestone, and called for sustained investment in sanitation.
The UNICEF official also pointed to ongoing projects delivering climate-resilient water and sanitation facilities across schools and primary healthcare centers in four local government areas.
On education, he urged faster implementation of the state’s 2026–2033 education plan to address the over 536,000 out-of-school children in Katsina.
Ur-Rehman added that birth registration coverage in the state had reached 68 percent, the highest among states under the Kano field office, while more than 600,000 households had been captured in the social register.
He also praised the state for allocating N270 million for a SMART Nutrition Survey, describing it as a critical step towards data-driven interventions.
UNICEF reaffirmed its commitment to supporting Katsina in expanding health, nutrition, and social protection programs across the state.
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