The Katsina State Government has distributed the sum of N400 million to cancer, kidney dialysis, kidney failure and other patients, receiving treatment in the state to assuage their sufferings.
Newsmen report that the fund distributed was part of the N20 million earlier released by Governor Aminu Bello Masari for women empowerment programmes to alleviate the predicaments bedeviling them across the 34 local government areas of the state.
Governor Aminu Masari
The state Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Dr Badiyya Hassan Mashi, made this disclosure while disbursing the funds to the beneficiaries at the General Hospitals, Funtua, Malumfashi, and Dutsinma.
The commissioner said the fund was released to provide relief materials for women; reduce poverty among rural dwellers and provide skills development, training and business support, especially for women and girls in the state.
“Governor Aminu Masari has released N20 million to my ministry to empower women and girls in the state. We have done the first and second phase. This is the third phase. We have empowered sizable number of women in the state.
“This initiative by the governor helped in addressing the challenges faced by women in the state and rebuilt the state economy and complement other economic empowerment strategies of the state government,” she said.
Dr Badiyya reiterated that the All Progressives Congress (APC) led-government in the state under its restoration agenda has done tremendously well in revamping the health sector via modern equipment.
She reaffirmed that the state government’s aim was to reach those women who have no income or working capital to undertake productive means of livelihood and empowerment them with different skills that would enhance their productivity.
Badiyya, however, warned that the disbursement of the funds to the beneficiaries should not be seen as the distribution of wasted money or government largesse for buying wrappers and other luxury goods but to enable the patients to offset their hospital bills.
She urged the managements of the hospitals visited to provide proper treatment to the patients to ensure their quick recovery, stressing that government would not condone negligence and quackery by the doctors.
