By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
Towards unlocking the huge socio-economic potentials of Bauchi State through the provision of social services in the areas of improved health care, education and an agrarian labour system, the State Government has reiterated its commitment to key into the Federal Government’s initiated Human Capital Development (HCD) program.
The State’s Deputy Governor, Senator Baba Tela stated this while declaring open a 2-day high level Workshop targeted at the HCD State Technical Working Group held recently at Aminu Saleh College of Education, Azare, Katagum Local Government Area of the state.
The Deputy Governor who described the workshop as a necessary step , said human capital development is an avenue and tool designed to strengthen citizens capacity through improved health care, quality education and enhanced economic status through an efficient and skilled labour forced.
Baba Tela said that inline with the thematic areas under the HCD program which focuses on health, education and labour, Bauchi State has achieved a significant milestones in that direction.
In the area of health, the deputy government informed participants at the workshop that, “there is at least one standard health facility in each of the 323 political wards across the state that provide integrated health services to the people.
There are so many other primary healthcare facilities that complements the services offered by the one-main-phc-per-ward initiative of the state government, other PHCs are also being constructed with some being renovated too. General Hospitals are being upgraded to provide an effective, efficient and quality services to clients in the state.
“In the area of education, the state government has also recorded an appreciable level of success through the provision of teaching aids, teacher training and retraining that translate into enrolment and retention of pupils and students in schools.
“Also, the State Government initiative tagged ‘Kaura Economic Empowerment Program (KEEP)’ has improved the economic status of some selected targeted groups in state, especially the poor and vulnerable citizens”, Baba Tela said.
The Deputy Governor, who doubled as the State Chairman of the Steering Committee of HCD Core Technical Working Group also said that efforts are ongoing to ensure the realization of the Human Capital Development Program in the state pointing out that, “the state government has opened its doors of stronger partnership with partners for additional funding opportunities in the ongoing efforts to positively impact on the lives of citizens”.
"I wish to strongly urge participants of this very important workshop to use the opportunity to assist in turning the fortune of our dear State in the areas of human capital resources and income generation among others. I must also appreciate the efforts of the Federal Government for initiating the Human Capital Development Program which is a very good development."
Baba Tela also commanded the present administration of Governor Bala Mohammed ,which according to him has made significant progress in ensuring improvement in the key thematic areas of the HCD program
He further called for more support from the Federal Government and other partners working for the implementation of the program in order to achieve the desired result.
Earlier in a welcome address, the State Focal Person of the Program, Alhaji Nasiru Mohammed Yalwa explained that, the Human Capital Development Program was initiated as response to the Nigeria's ranking as a country with low Human Capital Development. He said HCD program is being driven by Core Working Group under the National Economic Council targeted at achieving Nigeria's Vision 2030 for Human Capital Development.
Nasiru Yalwa, who was a former Head of Civil Service, said that to decentralize the policy framework, the State Technical Working Group has been put in place comprising of representatives from the frontline MDAS such as Education, Health, Agriculture, Youth and Sports, Budget and Economic Planning as well as Women Affairs among others, to provide technical inputs.
"The key thematic areas of the Program focused on Health and Nutrition; Education and Labour Force Participation, especially for female and youth.
“The thematic areas were aligned into six priority outcome areas of Under- Five Mortality, Malnutrition (under-five stunting), Adult Mortality (Life Expectancy), Expected years of school (School completion), Quality of Learning and Labour Force participation (Female and Youth).
"It was realized that there is the apparent need to understand the position of HCD at State level with a view to designing appropriate solutions to address the afore-mentioned outcome areas which informed the decision to conduct this workshop".
Giving an overview and objective of the workshop, the Northeast regional consultant of HCD Core Group Manasseh Agyu said The national Human Capital Development Core Working Group (CWG) was established with a mandate to develop a National Human Capital Development Strategy, engage states to ensure prioritization of Human Capital Development, ascertain quick wins at the federal and state Levels, and institute a robust countrywide monitoring and evaluation framework to track progress.
Agyu said that participants would be presented with the current status of the State in the thematic Areas with a view to recommending an implementable recommendations that can improve on what is obtained in the State.
He then commended Bauchi State Government for being the first State to organize the Technical Working Group Workshop which he described as, “clear demonstration of keying into the HCD Program”.
The Consultant then called on the participants not to be daunted by the statistics presented as, according to him, “knowing the challenges, is the first step towards addressing such challenges”.
Our correspondent reports that a communique will be developed and disseminated in a short while.
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