Kogi partners private sector to boost health workers capacity 

By Asma’u Ahmad

The Kogi state Government said it had plans to partner with health practitioners in the private sector for the on the job training of its Environmental Health Officers (EHOs).

Director-General of the state Bureau for Public Private Partnership (BPPP), Mr Robert Achanya, disclosed this at a news conference in Lokoja, the state capital.

He said the partnership would boost the capacity of the EHOs, get registered and certificated to enable them inspect premises according to the law for enhanced service delivery.

Mr Achanya said many of the EHOs in the state could not enforce environmental laws or carryout inspection of premises because they were not registered or licensed.

The director-general said that so far, there were only four registered and licensed environmental health officers in the state, saying that the development was not healthy.

He, however, stressed that the partnership did not mean that the state government was contemplating privatisation of the health sector.

Also speaking, the state Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Mrs Rosemary Oshikoya, said the state government had no plan to lay-off EHOs or outsource their job through such partnership. She said that the threat by EHOs to embark on industrial action over the matter was uncalled for.

According to her, the state Waste Management Board Law 2013 and the enabling BPPP law 2014, empower the state to engage the Bureau in the environmental health sector.