Reveals plans for Malaria vaccine roll-out
By Onche Odeh
The government of Nigeria has unveiled some initiatives that it would be deploying toward making quality healthcare accessible across the country, using Primary Healthcare as the bastion.
Most of the initiatives, which would be riding on the institutional gains made by the country through the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) are built around making quality health care accessible and cheaper.
Executive Director of NPHCDA, Dr. Muyi Aina who hinted about these intiatives during a Press Conference held in Abuja on Friday to mark the end of Management Retreat to fashion out a strategic Blueprint for the agency also hinted that Nigeria is looking at taking after Cameroon to roll out the malaria vaccine soon.
Giving specific details, Aina said the NPHCDA has developed a 3-pronged strategic approach, including deploying conscious effort to strengthen the institutions that will position NPHCDA as an effective partner to all stakeholders as it strives to co-ordinate the development of PHC services in Nigeria.
According to Aina, the agency is also working on building an Efficient, Quality and trusted PHC services that would be equitably delivered through functional PHC systems across the country.
He also said that NPHCDA will also be working with NCDC and other relevant Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), stakeholders and partners to position PHC for effective frontline health security in the country.
“Emerging from this management retreat, our strategic pillars and the priorities for the next two years are as follows we are poised to position Primary Health care in Nigeria, such that it is accessible to every citizen across all parts of the country,” Aina said.
The NPHCDA ED also said that the agency shall be riding on gains made by Nigeria’s security agency and innovative approaches to bypass the challenge of insecurity in its plans to make PHC accessible in all parts of the country.
On the issue of sustainability, Aina said the current government of President Bola Tinubu has laid a perfect ground for sustainability by making creating substantive funding for PHC in the budget.
He also used the opportunity to disclose some of the outcomes of the management retreat, saying, “Part of our deliberations at this retreat is to develop road map for effective and timely implementation of the strategic blueprint.
“As you are aware, primary healthcare is the bedrock that we are building on for effective and equitable healthcare services for all Nigerians. The Federal Government is therefore determined to strengthen our primary healthcare system to ensure that every Nigerian has equitable access to quality PHC services they need through a system that they trust.”
