By UCHE CHUKWU
Some selected Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have interrogated Anambra State government revenue and expenditure profiles for the first-two quarters of the year and made recommendations in areas of improvement. The CSOs are Civil Rights Concern (CRC), Justice and Peace Caritas (JDPC), Social and Integrated Centre (SIDEC) and Community Empowerment Network (CEN). The budget performance tracking tagged "Implementing Partners in the Strengthening Partnership for Accountability Result and Knowledge" was supported by International Budget Partnership . Throwing insight into the event, the Technical Partner and Executive Director of CRC, Okechukwu Onyeka noted that the programme was aimed at knowing government priorities and type of responsibilities stakeholders have. Onyeka said: "We reviewed government revenue, the amount realized in the first-two quarters to see if government achieved it's objectives within 2026." In a communique issued after the gathering iat Ki g David Hotel, Awka, the State capital, weekend, the CSOs equally hailed the State government's implementation of this year's budget with the result of generating N44.4 billion revenue internally in both the first and second quarters of the fiscal year. The sum of N14.4 billion was generated internally in the first quarter while N30.billion was earned in the second quarter of the year, totalling N44.4 billion so far. I' The CSOs congratulated the revenue office of the State for jumping the internally generated revenue of the State from N14. 4 billion in the first quarter of 2026 to over N30.5 billion in the second quarter of 2026;, at an approximate 111.8% increase urging it not to relent in its endeavours. . This achievement, the stakeholders noted could largely have come from improved blocking of the leakages in revenue collection,.
They discussed the issue of equity in amount of tax paid by the informal sector and agreed that the revenue office should find a way to resolve the matter as small businesses cannot be paying the same rate with bigger businesses with much higher turnovers.
Stakeholders also called for increased sensitization and education of tax payers through their unions and associations. The Stakeholders observed that, in ranking of funding priorities, the Ministry of Works is number 1 as most prioritized government organisation and most funded, followed by reform of government and governance. Health sector got 3rd position followed by education as 4th. The representatives of CSOs regretted that the tradition of zero allocation in capita expenditure to agriculture sector which supports strong health has been on for about two years now. They faulted the zero allocation to agriculture in the current budget of Anambra State as opposed to huge allocations to to capital expenditure of the Ministry of Works. According to them, an urgent attention required in situations in the purchase of testing equipment for testing agricultural commodities to check the abuses in the use of dangerous chemical in food preservation. In addition, they condemned the issue of adding dye to red palm oil to make it look very bright. These allegations, the CSOs claim, should be enough reason to release money for the purchase of the testing equipment. They stakeholders recommended that quick attention should be given to the purchase of testing equipment and funding of agriculture capital expenditures to reduce such abuses and improved food production. For health sector, the total budget is N75, 290,245,798.28, this is 9.82% of the total State budget. In Q 1, 2.6% of the budget was funded amounting to N1, 954,749,512.23. At end of Q 2, the sum of N12, 080,440,134.04 was provided for health sector capital items adding up to N14, 035,189,646.27 in two quarters. This is 18.6% of the approved capital expenditure.
Given the budget size, the sum of N18.8 billion is expected to be spent per quarter; and by Q 2, N37.645 billion performance would be made. The shortfall in the 50% expected spend in Q 2 is 31.4%, this shortfall may have caused none implementation of some critical services. The zero implementation of primary healthcare capital expenditure budgets has been a challenge in primary healthcare, coupled with issues of poor budget descriptions of activity titles which may have largely contributed to none prioritization and funding of the budget items.
It is equally noted that the implementation of these items were undertaken by the ministry and not the primary healthcare agency.
The CSOs okayed that the activity titles should be more specific with regard to numbers and locations of activity to provide better understanding so that the approval authorities will respond to them positively. Some of the budget lines reviewed did not provide any clarity in respect of what would be done and the number of items needed.
The stakeholders recommended that improved and effective use of the BHCPF is very critical for more and better services in primary healthcare system as state funding is very thin and sparse for primary health capital expenditure items.
They called for improved funding of primary healthcare capital expenditures as none implementation would be affecting the level of services available.
According to them, the Ward Development Committees (WDCs are very critical for an effective primary healthcare system. The WDCs should therefore provide effective interface between the communities and the primary healthcare system for budgeting the real needs of the PHCs in the wards. The WDCs working with the Officers in Charge of PHCs should provide number of items needed for capital expenditure programmes that when aggregated and provided in the primary healthcare budget gives it credibility, consideration and approval.
The local governments were given responsibilities in primary healthcare and in the ward health system for effective implementation of the BHCPF. Anambra State 2024 local government law also captured this as a shared responsibility between the State and the local government. In the ward health system, the local government chairmen are required to preside over the local government health advisory committee meetings. The committee is expected to provide an oversight to the work going on in the primary healthcare facilities; to review implementation reports of the PHCs and provide some oversight. Currently they are not doing so and it affects the level of services in PHCs.
The CSOs reviewed the excuses of the local government for failure to support the PHC activities due to paucity of financial resources and agreed that they should include any needed support that they should be providing in their budgets as required by the implementation guidelines and seek for more funds from the State Planning Board to be released for them to fulfil that that role. They agreed that the local governments should budget to implement the advisory committee meetings as required by the ward health system in Primary Health Care One Roof and the implementation guidelines of the BHCPF and the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria as set in section 7.
In conclusion, stakeholders agreed that these decisions will be followed up to ensure that responsible government authorities acted on the recommendations for improved services in PHCs in the State..