By Ajuma Edwina Ogiri
Abuja
The Federal Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the Ministry of Budget and National Planning and the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), has launched the implementation of a N40 billion (70 million Euros) European Union (EU) support project, meant to improve the health of mothers and children and strengthen health systems in Nigeria.
It stated that the fund would be jointly implemented by United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), and the World Health Organisation (WHO) in partnership with the Federal Government and the target states.
“50 million Euros of the grant disbursed through the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF), aims to ensure that by 2020, 80 per cent of the wards in Adamawa, Bauchi and Kebbi states will have a functional primary health care centre, providing round-the-clock services to three million children under the age of five, as well as almost a million pregnant women and lactating mothers.
“Also, 20 million Euros disbursed through the World Health Organisation (WHO), will support the strengthening of health care systems towards achieving universal health coverage in Anambra and Sokoto states.”
Speaking at the launch yesterday in Abuja, the EU Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Michel Arrion, said the project would help to improve access to effective health and nutrition in the prioritised states and support the final push to eradicate polio in Nigeria.
He said: “The focus is especially on providing services to poor, marginalised, rural women and children, saving the lives of mothers and children and improving their health and nutrition through a sustainable primary health care delivery system.”
Also speaking, UNICEF Nigeria Representative, Mohamed Fall, said, “This will help Nigeria on the road to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals agreed at the United Nations in 2015 by all the world’s nations, including Nigeria.”
Thanking the EU for the grant, WHO Country Representative, Dr Wondimagegnehu Alemu, said: “Our partnership with the EU will enable the organisation, to continue providing the necessary technical support to the Government of Nigeria towards strengthening the health systems and enhancing timely interventions during supplemental immunisation activities, including reaching children in areas with insecurity in the North-east.”