The UNICEF Representative to Nigeria, Cristian Munduate, has commended the Zamfara state government for renovating over 170 primary health care centers across the state. She highlighted that functional health centers are crucial for better access to healthcare.
Munduate made these remarks during discussions with the Governor of Zamfara during her recent two-day visit to the state, where they explored strategies for state revenue generation to address health, malnutrition, and education challenges.
The visit to Zamfara was to assess the situation to gain a comprehensive understanding of the challenges faced by children in Zamfara, particularly in education, health, and nutrition.
“I believe almost 170 primary health care centers have been renovated, and they want to accelerate this process. This is great news. If the health centers are functional, the people in the communities will have better access to health care,” Munduate explained.
While progress is visible, she emphasized the urgent need for further acceleration. She also stressed the need for increased funding to maintain and expand these improvements.
“This is excellent, but more acceleration is needed, which should be supported by a larger budget.”
Munduate continued, “Yesterday, I had a conversation with the Governor of Zamfara, and he mentioned that he had improved the state’s tax collection. It seems there has been significant improvement, and people are happy to pay taxes because they can see the changes. This means that the state budget may have more funds, which should hopefully be prioritised for health and education, both of which are urgently needed.”
The UNICEF Representative further emphasized the importance of government commitment to fully supporting health and education initiatives, while acknowledging the progress made, she recognized the challenges of reaching remote communities.
“This is part of public administration—what they do and how UNICEF can support them by providing technical assistance. Of course, we also provide resources and supplies, but on the other side, there must be equal response and commitment from the government, particularly in health.”
“There are many communities in Zamfara that are hard to reach, where health facilities may not be available. In such areas, we rely heavily on community health workers, and timely payment remains a significant constraint,” she stressed.
She noted further that UNICEF has been working closely with community health workers, particularly those involved in critical initiatives like polio eradication.
“UNICEF supports at least those working on polio initiatives. We are working to improve timely payments. We’ve recently changed the system, which has caused some setbacks, but we remain committed to paying on time and hope to resolve these issues.”
