The Governor of Kaduna State, Nasiru El-Rufai, has restated his administration’s commitment to supporting vulnerable people in the state to actualise their full potentials.
Speaking in Kaduna on Wednesday, while receiving the Country Representative, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Ulla Mueller, who was at the Government House for a joint programme to mark the International Women’s Day, El-Rufai said his administration believed that disabilities and other circumstances should not be a hurdle to reaching a person’s full potentials.
“We believe in giving equal opportunities to all and to do that, the government needs to identify with those that are not able to assist themselves. The main purpose of government is to ensure that those who cannot help themselves are helped to achieve their full potentials.
We have invested in primary health care, we have introduced contributory health Insurance to give a pathway to universal health coverage and also the social protection policy,” he said.
The Governor said 63 per cent of the state budget in the first four years of his administration was invested in education, healthcare and assisting the poorest and vulnerable persons.
He told the UNFPA officials that the government was in the process of establishing a social protection agency, to target the poorest and ensure that they did not go uncared.
He thanked the UNFPA for its unique approach of reaching out to women and other works that touched the lives of the people.
Earlier, Mueller said they chose to celebrate the day in Kaduna because the state has 43 per cent women in leadership positions.
“The 43 per cent I notice is more than what is obtained in most developed countries. My country has 29 per cent of female in cabinets although we have a female prime minister and 14 per cent women in a leadership position.”
She congratulated the governor for the feat, saying “when you focus on equality and when you are mindful, deliberate about the decisions you make, you steadily prosper.”
She pledged to work with the Kaduna state government and find ways to support its efforts to drive sustainable development.