By Asma’u Ahmad
The Federal Government has inaugurated a committee to supervise the $500 million grant disbursement to the 36 states of the federation and FCT to address maternal and child health challenges in the country.
The Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, inaugurated the committee during a retreat organised by the federal programme management unit of the Saving One Million Lives (SOML) Programme for Results (PforR) in Abuja.
Professor Isaac Adewole
“The fund is expected to address five disbursement linked indicators which are increasing utilisation of high impact reproductive and child health and nutrition interventions. Increasing quality of high impact reproductive and child health and nutrition interventions, improving monitoring and evaluation and data utilisation
“Increasing utilisation and quality of reproductive and child health and nutrition, in addition to increasing transparency in management and budgeting of primary health centres,” he said.
Prof. Adewole said that the ministry would not interfere with the activities of the agent in any way. He charged the agent to serve to the best of its ability as an independent and credible assessor of the performance of the programme implementation at state and federal levels. “We promise support but not interference, we will allow you to do your work.
“We need to utilise this resources properly, we have to show results and we have to pay for results. If there are no results there will be no further payment,” he said.
The National Programme Manager, SOMLforR, Dr. Ibrahim Kana, said that the IVA are like referees who will ensure there is a level playing field.
Dr. Kana reiterated that the disbursement-linked indicators are tied to future disbursements for states. It will be recalled that SOMLPforR was launched in response to the poor health outcome in the country, particularly for mothers and children.
The ceremonial launch of SOML Programme for Results (PforR) took place in Abuja in July 2016. The minister said at the event that it was part of federal government’s efforts geared towards achieving the Universal Health Coverage.
