By Muhammad Amaan
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, said the Federal Government will disburse N50 billion to Primary Healthcare Centres (PHC) in the first quarter of 2024.
He made the disclosure in Abuja during the fifth Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) and Ministerial Oversight Committee meeting.
According to Pate, the funds which are already accrued in the BHCPF, will be disbursed through the state’s PHC facilities to deliver services to women and children.
“That is part of the target that President Bola Tinubu has set for us so that we can expand the facilities over the next four years from 8,000 to almost 17,000 PHCs.
“Also, to enrol more vulnerable Nigerians to have access to quality health care services.”
He also said that the work of the committee was to continue as it would refine the criteria, issues of the package and how providers are paid.
Pate added that the committee would ensure that its embedded in the context of improved accountability, improved answerability so that the facilities receiving these resources at both the state and local government levels are able to answer to their people.
“They will be able to say what they are using the resources for, as well as what we do at the Federal Government level to respond to Nigerians in terms of the progress that we will be making over the next four years.
“We will do that transparently, of course correcting as may be necessary, but all on the path to achieve the direction that the President has set for us to improve the health and well-being of Nigerians.”
The Chairman of Forum of Health Commissioners in Nigeria, Dr Oyebanji Filani, said that the meeting was to debate, review and agree on a set of issues that would enable the country to move towards a very clear path to achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) using the BHCPF.
“We have discussed a number of challenges that we have had, we explored opportunities to address these challenges and we’re quite confident that as we go into the new year, we will be moving in the right direction.
“With respect to memos; we cleared out one critical memo that provides an underlining basis for improved accountability and fiduciary transparency of how funds are disbursed and how we are able to monitor it,” he added.
The Country Representative of the WHO, Dr Walter Mulombo, said that the deliberations at the meeting were encouraging, especially as it followed the Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative which was recently unveiled.
He added that the discussions at the meeting were in the right direction because they set the tone for a reset and business unusual to really accelerate the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
“We are happy to be part of this discussion and we express our commitment to bring our contribution alongside other development partners to make sure that this programme is really a success indeed.
“There is really hope that things will change and we’ll start witnessing a different Nigeria than the one we knew before as far as health is concerned, and we hope it will trigger ripple effect to other sectors as well to follow suit.”
The BHCPF serves to fund a Basic Minimum Package of Health Services (BMPHS) and increase the fiscal space for health.
Established under Section 11 of the National Health Act as a catalytic funding to improve access to primary healthcare, it is also aimed at strengthening the national health system.
This is particularly at PHC level by making provision for routine daily operation cost of PHCs and ensure access to healthcare for all.
