The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) Tuesday advocated the revitalisation of Primary Health Care (PHC) centres and a shift towards sustainable ownership by states and local governments.
The Executive Director, Chief Executive Officer of NPHCDA, Dr Muyi Aina, said at a press conference held at the headquarters of the agency in Abuja that the long-term responsibility for routine health services rests with states and local government areas while the federal government gives support in emergencies.
“We’re not just revitalising buildings, we’re building systems.
“The federal government is moving from prolonged interventions to empowering states to sustain them. That’s how we avoid relapse,” Aina said while responding to a question on what is being done to equip PHCs in all the wards in the country.
He stated further that the process was being guided by data and done in collaboration with state governments.
“This is not guesswork. We sit with the states and define what qualifies as high or low volume. Funds follow the patients. That’s how we ensure equity and impact.
“The goal is sustainability. States must begin to take full ownership of their healthcare workforce,” he said.
Marking the 2025 World Immunisation Week with the theme: “Immunization for All is Humanly Possible,” with representatives the World Health Organisation (WHO), the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in attendance, it was agreed that there is need to scale up innovative strategies to ensure no child was left behind in the fight against vaccine-preventable diseases.
The Africa Vaccination Week was established 13 years ago and endorsed by African Union member states.
Globally, it is estimated that there are over 100 million zero-dose children, with Nigeria accounting for one of the highest burdens.
Representative of WHO, Dr Eshetu Wassie, speaking on Expanded Programme on Immunisation, remarked that identifying and reaching children was now treated as a public health emergency.
“It’s no longer enough to just conduct campaigns. We must locate who is missed, understand why, and act, child by child. Surveillance is our first line of defence,” he said.
UNICEF representative, Ms Christian Munduate, said the crisis of zero-dose children had triggered a paradigm shift from service delivery to humanitarian outreach.
“These children aren’t just missed, they are excluded. We have shifted to humanitarian-style programming because traditional systems were not reaching them,” she said.