Iloke Egbe SPC
The Civil Society Scaling up Nutrition in Nigeria, in Collaboration with Cross River State Committee on Food and Nutrition has commenced tracking of 2025 Nutrition Budget performance by Ministries, Departments and Agencies in the State Civil Service with the aim of adopting empirical and more results oriented approaches in handling and implementation of Nutrition sensitive activities as captured in the State Budget by implementing Ministries, Departments and Agencies.
In an interface with the Permanent Secretary, Cross River State Budget Office Dr. Peter Uklala in his office. He admitted that the Nutrition Budget and activities have been substantially very successful in the first and second quarter of the year compare to previous years.
According to the Perm Sect, there is high possibility that the 3rd quarter will be more engaging with activities as the Governor, His Excellency Senator Prince Bassey Edet Otu has given his words on the scalability of budget releases in favour of Nutrition sensitive programmes. He assured the CS-SUN and SCFN that the Budget Office is ready to give necessary support to the committee and advised the committee to reach out when the need arises.
In his words, the State Director of Budget Mr. Benjamin Williams Ubi welcomed members of the committee, stating that Budget Office will always be willing to support CS-SUNN and SCFN in tracking and monitoring releases to ensure accountability.
At the Ministry of Information, the Permanent Secretary Mrs. Offiong Ani Offiong advised that proper tagging on Nutrition Information, Education and Communication or publicity activities should be made in conjunction with all the officers that are involved in Budget preparation to avoid conflicts with general orientation activities or rejection by the Budget Office.
The following Ministries, Departments and Agencies have 2025 budget approvals to carry out Nutrition activities with many gotten budget releases and have successfully implemented some activities from the Budget. There are Ministry of Health, State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Ministry of Agric, Ministry of Environment and State Planning Commission.
Others include Ministry of Women Affairs, Ministry of Youth Development, Ministry of Commerce, Rural Water and Sanitation Agency, Ministry of Education while Ministry of Information have join to increase awareness creation through strategic information dissemination, Education and Communication to key stakeholders in the Nutrition ecosystem.
Across section of members of CS-SUN and the State Committee on Food and Nutrition were in attendance led by the State chairman CS-SUN, including the Permanent Secretary SPC, Mr. Kingsley Ndem Eyibio and members of SCFN.
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