By Ndidi Chukwu
The Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, has officially congratulated the Project Director of Community Health and Research Initiative (CHR) Dr. Aminu Magashi Garba, on his appointment as Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) representative of the Global Financing Facility (GFF) Investors Group.
Professor Adewole congratulated Dr Aminu Magashi during a meeting with CSOs on the Global Financing Facility (GFF) and urged him to represent Nigeria well in the global communities.
He said: “Dr. Aminu Magashi is very connected and well respected, so please promote the interest of Nigeria in the global community”
Earlier in his goodwill message, Dr. Magashi had reminded the minister of his commitment in Addis Ababa in 2016 during the ministerial conference on sustainable immunization financing where he committed to have regular meeting with CSOs in Nigeria, stating the need for the meeting to regularly take place for improved accountability.
In the same vein, Dr. Olumide Okunola, of the World Bank told the minister the key focus of the GFF towards helping countries achieve smart, sustainable and scaled financing for Reproductive Maternal Newborn Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCAH), and the need for work closely with the CSOs, to develop an Investment case for Nigeria.
In his response the minister said the issue of transparency and accountability is paramount to the leadership of the ministry and will work with the CSOs to ensure quarterly meetings are held regularly where the Federal Ministry of Health, will share information on its health agenda.
Prof. Adewole said the CSOs in Nigeria have proven to have the capacity to win and support the ministry on issues of health care financing and committed to lead in an open ministry of health mechanism.
He said: “There is a lot of mistrust on the ministry, to have a system in place where we can build trust again is important, we need to create a mechanism where the ministry will build trust in terms of accountability, by making relevant financial information available to the CSOs and the public on a quarterly basis.”
He went further to add that the ministry of Health will officially present its 2017 health agenda during the forthcoming, first CSOs consultative forum on the GFF, scheduled to take place in on Tuesday March 7.
