Niger Agency says 70 per cent of population lacks good healthcare

The Niger State Primary Health Care Development Agency says about 70 per cent of the people in the state lack access to adequate health care services.

Dr Yahaya Na’uzo, the Executive Director of the Agency, disclosed this to journalist in Minna on Thursday.

Na’uzo said that only people living in urban areas of the state like Minna, the state capital, Kontagora, Suleja and Bida were privileged to have good health care services because general hospitals are located there.

“The existing health care centres in rural areas do not have adequate manpower and modern equipment to meet the peoples’ health demand.

“Such deficiency is responsible for poor health care delivery in hard-to-reach rural areas,’’ he said.

According to the director, Gov. Abubakar Bello of Niger has taken steps to have functional Primary Health Care Centres (PHCC) in all the 274 wards of the state.

“Locating PHCCs in the 274 wards will provide the accessibility needed and address the issue of the vulnerable, such as women and children, without proper health care in the society,’’ he said.

Na’uzo said that government would rehabilitate 175 PHCC this year to serve as the bedrock for service delivery.

He said that the state government had concluded arrangements to employ more health workers as part of its efforts to improve health care services to the people.

The director explained that having more health personnel in the system would address health issues such as polio, maternal and infant mortality.

He added that having more personnel would also reduce poor access to health care services in rural areas.