*wins 1st position in 4 areas
By; ISAAC ODEH, Kaduna
Governor Nasir el-Rufai-led administration in Kaduna State has emerged the overall best in Accelerating Nutrition Results in Nigeria (ANRIN), Projects Awards 2022, with first position in four areas as the best performing state.
Kaduna also came out second best performing state in two other categories, with certificates of achievements award and two personal awards in ANRIN projects 2022, presented by the National Council of Health in Nigeria.
The four best performing categories Kaduna emerged first position includes, Safeguards, Partner Mapping and Coordination (DLI6), Social Behavior Change Communication, and Innovation respectively.
The two other categories the state came out second best are,
Fiduciary and SPHPDA, while two personal awards for Question Asker and Note Taker awards 2022, went to the ANRIN Project Manager Kaduna State, Dr. Zainab K. Muhammad-Idris.
Formally presenting the eight awards to commissioners of Ministries of Health; Budget and Planning and their teams in their separate offices on Wednesday, the ANRIN projects manager, Dr. Zainab Muhammad-Idris said the awards and achievements are part of the continuous support from the two principal ministries.
She also said that the success story of the awards came from team work spirit, commitment and resilience, as well as very deep understanding of the project implementation objectives, by making sure that everyone is carried along in ensuring quality services delivery through the non state actors.
“We also ensured that everyone is carried along so that we deliver services through our non state actors, the basic passage of nutrition services and adolescence health service, to the target beneficiaries that comprised pregnant women, lactating mothers, adolescent girls and children of less than five years across the 23 LGAs in Kaduna State.
“The awards were presented to Kaduna by National Council on Health. It means we’ve been recognized by World Bank and project management unit of Federal Ministry of Health. It’s something we did not envisage.
“After implementation support mission which happens every six months, they look at how much states have accomplished and in what areas. So we’ve been able to win about eight awards,” she said.
According to her, over eight million of these beneficiaries have so far been reached with the services which constituted ANRIN counseling, delivering micro nutrient power supplement to children between the ages of six to 59 months and iron folic acid to pregnant women that attend antenatal and those found at home.
“We also as well, deliver the services around Vitamin A supplementation, deworming of quite a number of children and others. So we won this award in delivering this services across the 23 LGAs in Kaduna State”, she added.
The project Manager, Dr. Zainab idris however, explained that some of the challenges they faced were delays in implementation of the project, the series of set backs in signing of the project initiative from both the federal and state governments and lock down of COVID-19, where they lost almost a year before they commenced the project.
Responding, the Commissioner of Health Kaduna State, Dr. Amina Mohammed Baloni, who expressed happiness, commended the ANRIN projects manager Kaduna State and her team for the hard work for winning the awards, signifying that the project has taking off in the state, and doing well, adding that the award is a testimony of hard work.
Also responding, the state Budget and Planning Commissioner, Hajiya Umma Yusuf Abaoki, said it is a proud moment for Kaduna State, seeing it achieving this milestone with four first positions for best performing state and four others.
She however, acknowledged that ANRIN is one project they started with many challenges, saying, “We hope Kaduna State people are seeing what we’re doing to improve health.
“Health is one of the priority areas of Kaduna State. The state will continue to prioritise the sector. We’ll continue to provide at least 15% of our annual budgetary figure to health, to provide access to health for the citizens of Kaduna State.
“Let them continue to make huge impact to the community. It is not so much of getting award only. For us, we want to see its impact on our community in terms of improved rates in mortality, birth rates and others,” she stated.
Earlier, Director Public Health Department, Ministry of Health that supervised the project, Dr. Hajiya Nl’ima Kera also expressed happiness, adding that the ministry is proud that all the hard work and dedication it had put in over the years has produced fruits.
