FG working with partners on COVID-19 vaccine delivery

Doosuur Iwambe, Abuja

The federal government is working with stakeholders to ensure that Nigerians benefit from a potent coronavirus vaccine once it is developed, the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, has said.

Speaking during the presentation of the 2020 scorecard of the Ministry of Health to the public in Abuja on Monday, the minister noted that the first set of candidate vaccines were already being rolled out abroad, adding that the Nigeria is part of the COVAX facility, an initiative backed by WHO and GAVI.

While stressing that the initiative was to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines to low and lower middle-income countries like Nigeria, Dr. Ehanire reaffirmed the commitment of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to strengthen healthcare facilities in the country.  

He said, ‘’A high level team will guide discussions on the subject through FMOH technical working group at National Primary Healthcare Development Agency  (NPHCDA), which is the Secretariat for Vaccine Logistics and operations.

Details will be made known to the public as they develop. We are also working on various Research options at the Nigeria Institute of Medical Research, and the Nigeria Biovaccine Ltd is on standby to pursue domestic manufacture options’’.

He further disclosed that while the Covid-19 pandemic has brought attention to the Health Systems of all countries like never before, the outbreak has presented  an opportunity for countries including Nigeria to restructure and  rebuild the health systems.

Ehanire added that the ministry is guided by President Buhari’s health sector next level agenda of 2019, a 9-point, medium-term plan, to ramp up the push towards Universal Health Coverage.

He listed the Agenda to include; ‘‘Implementation of Mandatory Universal Health Insurance in collaboration with State governments and the Federal Capital Territory Administration.

Operationalisation of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) in collaboration with partners and agencies.

‘’Recruitment and deployment of 50,000 Community Health Extension Workers, revamping Federal Teaching Hospitals across the country; collaboration with Private Sector Investors to establish high-quality hospitals in Nigeria. Reduction of gaps in all health-related SDGs by at least 60%.

‘’Reduction in the current imbalance between primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare; active collaboration with the private sector to create a large number of well-paying jobs for Nigerian youths; and  contribution to the realisation of Mr. President’s June 12 promise to take 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in the next 10 years’’.

Earlier, Dr Faisal Shuaib, the NPHCDA Executive Secretary, lamented that the current primary healthcare system is under-utilized, as the significant burden has been transferred to the other tiers of the health systems.

He explained that the tertiary healthcare is design to cater for only 3% of the population while the secondary healthcare  designed to cater for at least 27% of the population in reality, caters for over 70%.

‘’The primary healthcare is designed to cater for at least 70% but, only caters for about 20%.

Most times moribund which causes the burden on the secondary healthcare’’, he added.

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While stressing that all stakeholders are key to ensuring sustainable PHC financing in sustaining the Universal Health Coverage, Dr. Shuaib added that the NPHCDA is collaborating with States, LGAs, and critical stakeholders to fast track progress by upgrading PHC infrastructures and availability of well-trained health workforce amongst others.

On his part, Prof Ladipo Oladapo, National Advocate for Health who spoke on behalf of civil societies, stressed the need to ensure increase in budgetary allocations for family planning to cover consumables, supplies and infrastructure, commodity, logistics, management, training of skilled providers and demand creation.

Prof Oladapo who noted the need to fastback the basic healthcare provision fund said, despite the disruption occasioned by COVID-19 pandemic, the need for family planning keeps increasing.

“As health systems shift to prevent and treat people with COVID-19, it is essential they also protect access to family planning services.

“There is need to ensure all funds committed by the federal government on family planning is released”, he said.

Representatives of the World Health Organization and the United Nations Children’s Fund, while commending the government, renewed their commitments to support the health sector towards improving maternal and child health, strengthening immunization and revitalization of Primary Healthcare system in the country.