The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has expressed its commitment to key into a partnership with Nigeria’s leading civil society organisation, Connected Development (CODE), to enhance its capacity in improving the state of primary healthcare service and infrastructure in every ward across the country.
This was communicated by Dr. Faisal Shuaib, the Executive Director/CEO of NPHCDA, on August 18, during a high-level meeting with delegates from CODE, led by the founder and CEO, Hamzat Lawal.
At the meeting, Lawal revealed details of the investigation conducted by CODE; highlighting that 80 percent of 90 Primary Health Care Centres (PHCs) in 15 states, cutting across all geo-political zones, do not meet up to minimum standards as stipulated by the Agency—all attributing factors compounding the poor state of healthcare services in the country and hampering the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to remote communities.
In his submission, Shuaib, commended CODE for its work in demanding equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines across the country, adding that the inadequacies which have been recorded in the sector is owing to a lack of adequate investment in the PHC sector.
L-R: Founder and CEO Connected Development, Hamzat Lawal and the Executive Director/CEO of NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib
According to Shuaib, the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF) which seeks to eliminate financial barriers to accessing primary healthcare is a step in the right direction but noted that there are still challenges which the Agency is working to tackle.
Buttressing the effort of the NPHCDA, Shuaib revealed that the agency is working to leverage technology (Geo-mapping) to identify settlements across the country in order to drive their strategy towards ensuring that people in remote and marginalized communities receive COVID-19 vaccines.
He added that the Agency is planning towards a primary healthcare summit which will be a platform and avenue for public and private stakeholders to discuss and mobilize for action geared towards ameliorating the state of primary healthcare in Nigeria.
While extolling the impact of Follow The Money (FTM) in mobilizing for government transparency and accountability over the years, Shuaib invited CODE to join the Agency in its project implementation phase, soliciting for CODE to monitor its process as an independent body to ensure maximum and optimum delivery.
