By Hassan Zaggi
The Governor of Nasarawa State, Engr. Abdullahi Sule, has advocated the utilization of all dormant monies in the country to fund Primary Health Care (PHC).
He, however, insisted that it was not proper for the country to continue to depend on foreign funding to fund the health sector.
Speaking at the Primary Health Care (PHC) Financing Forum organised by the Nigeria Health Commissioners Forum in Abuja, Wednesday, the Nasarawa state governor insisted that: “We cannot continue to rely on development partners and foreign investments when it comes to financing health. We must finance it ourselves. We appreciate them and we must continue to appreciate them.”
He further noted that “Nigeria has so many options and there is so much money sitting in places that we must find ways to bring them out to come and fund primary health care.
“There is so much money sitting in places and one day we will invite the CBN to come and talk to us so that we know that the responsibility rest on all of us.”
Earlier, the Chairman of the Nigeria’s Governors; Forum (NGF), Dr. Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti state, expressed optimism that “a renewed and resilient primary health care system, backed by sustainable financing is possible in Nigeria and must be part of our country’s post-COVID story.”
Represented by the Governor Nasarawa State, Engr. Abdullahi Sule, Dr. Fayemi, however, said that “the challenge before us, is ensuring primary health care in Nigeria is financed sustainably to ensure risk protection, adequate infrastructure and human resources and the delivery of quality health services.”
The Ekiti Governor disclosed that to solve the problem of financing for primary health care and meet the demands for a responsive and high-performing health system, the country must approach PHC financing and service delivery with four key focuses in mind.
The four key areas, according to him, include the utilisation of the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF) to finance essential health services, especially for the vulnerable and to improve the country’s capacity to address public health emergencies; consolidate funding to address primary care and essential public health functions; increase in budgetary allocations for healthcare both at the national and State levels and the exploration of innovative ways to pool funds for non-contributory healthcare coverage.
Dr Fayemi applauded the Chairman of the Nigeria Health Commissioners Forum, Dr Oyebanji Filani, for what he described as his numerous contributions to improving health financing both nationally and sub-nationally and for his commendable leadership of the Nigerian Commissioners for Health Forum.
On his part, the incoming Governor of Ekiti state, Mr Biodun Oyebanji, disclosed that the state has so far drawn the sum of 282,625,016 naira from the BHCPF, channeled through the State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (SPHCDA), the Ekiti State Health Insurance Scheme (EKHIS) and the Ekiti State Ambulance Service (EKSAMS).
The money, according to him, has been used to purchase an explicit package of care, which is free at the point of use for households in different communities and the implementation of the Ulerawa programme otherwise known as the Ekiti State Basic Package of Health Services (ESBPHS) which provides a set of essential health services to all residents of Ekiti without any financial cost to them and Ulerawa has enables us increase access to communities with more than 250, 000 persons.
The PHC Financing Forum was well attended by critical stakeholders in the health sector including development partners and international and local Non Governmental Organisations.
