By Haruna Gimba
The Kano State House of Assembly on Tuesday passed the Kano Health Trust Fund (KHETFUND) Bill.
The fund when assented by Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, will ensure sustainable financing of health sector in the state.
Health Reporters gathered that the lawmakers gave the bill an overwhelming majority votes on the floor of the house.
The proposed fund will be financed through a 5% deduction every month from the total tax revenue of the state and another 1% dedicated monthly from statutory allocation to the 44 local government areas of the state.The Community Health and Research Initiative (CHR), Chair Board of Trustees, Dr Aminu Magashi Garba, said the lawmakers has formally wrote to the CHR for technical support in the lead up to the bill.
He said: “CHR was catalytic and technical in the support it rendered. CHR support to this process was not funded by any of its current and/or previous projects funded by local and/or international development partners and at no point anywhere in this process that donors’ names were mentioned or their funds were used.”
Dr Magashi said CHR will shift its advocacy to Governor Ganduje to get him to assent to the bill, in time for its provisions to be figured into the 2018 budget.
Kano state is the second most populous state in Nigeria with about 15 million population according to projection, the state also has the highest number of federal constituencies in the country, with 24 seats in the House of Representatives.
