The Kaduna State Bureau of Statistics today flagged off the enumeration of all health facilities in the state with a view to determining the number, spread and need for effective planning.

The State’s Statistician General, Alhaji Bashari Bature-Ibrahim, who confirmed the take-off of during his monitoring of the exercise at Giwa and Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital, Shika said in Zaria that the enumeration was being conducted in all the 23 local governments in the state.

According to him, the exercise is aimed at identifying the locations and characteristics of all the health facilities in Kaduna state and it covers primary, secondary, tertiary and even private facilities.

The statistician general explained that the exercise would enable the government to have the true picture of the performance of the health sector in state in order to plan for the improvement and betterment of its people.

Bature-Ibrahim pointed out that the exercise would provide update on existing health facilities in the state and create a framework toward getting a comprehensive and total list of the facilities.

He disclosed that in order to get the exercise completed on time, the Bureau had engaged students of Kaduna State University and Nuhu Bamali Polytechnic for the survey.

“You know, socio-economic researches is one of the areas for both the statisticians and economists. So, by recruiting them to be part of our exercises, we are giving them skills that they could not get in their respective institutions”, Bature-Ibrahim said.

He urged the various communities in the state to give the enumerators support for the exercise in order to achieve its purpose.

In her remarks at Giwa Local Government Secretariat, the Director of Personnel Management, Hajiya Ummakaltum Sambo, said that the enumerators were being assisted to conduct the exercise.

She said: “My appeal is that if they find out that the facilities are not up to standard, they should kindly report, so that the state government can further improve or standardise them.

“This standardisation can be achieved through the provision of equipment and posting of required technical staff to man the facilities”, Sambo added.