No fewer than 388 government officials drawn from the 36 states and the FCT have completed a capacity building programme on how to link education and health sector plans with realistic budgets.

The training was organised under the World Bank-supported HOPE Governance Programme, domiciled in the Federal Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning.

According to details from the programme, the workshop was structured in four batches and focused on helping states prepare for the 2027 fiscal year by ensuring their Annual Operational Plans for Primary Healthcare and Annual Workplans for Basic Education speak directly to their budget provisions.

The Communications Officer of the programme, Joe Mutah, in a statement on Monday, said participants were exposed to tools for effective public financial management, including programme-based budgeting and use of the National Chart of Accounts.

The sessions also covered cost prioritisation, project mapping, geo-tagging and reconciliation of sector workplans with available spending ceilings.

The National Coordinator, Dr. Assad Hassan, said the intervention was intentionally scheduled ahead of the 2027 budget cycle so that states can reflect best practices in their estimates. He noted that it will help states meet Disbursement-Linked Indicator 2, which ties incentives to proper alignment of budgets with the national accounting chart.

On his part, the World Bank Task Team Lead for the programme, Mr. Ikechukwu Nweje, explained that states that achieve DLI 2 stand to benefit from significant performance-based rewards.

Those in attendance included State Permanent Secretaries for Budget and Planning, chairmen of State Universal Basic Education Boards, executive secretaries of Primary Health Care agencies, directors of budget, SWAp desk officers and HOPE-Governance focal persons.

The HOPE Governance initiative is a $500 million facility backed by the World Bank to fix governance, funding and transparency gaps in the delivery of basic education and primary healthcare nationwide.

The four-batch training which started last month will wrap up on Wednesday, November 4.

Sources: Punch E-Paper, Independent Newspapers, Peoples Daily, TG News.