Kwara: AbdulRazaq disburses Investment Funds of N887m to 193 PHCs
Gov. AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq of Kwara on Monday in Ilorin disbursed investment funds to Primary Healthcare Centres across the 193 political wards in the state.
SOLACEBASE reports that Kwara State Government secured a World Bank funding of N887 to support infrastructure upgrade in at least one primary healthcare facility in each of the 193 wards of the state.
The World Bank support comes under the Immunisation Plus and Malaria Progress by Accelerating Coverage and Transforming Services (IMPACT) project, for which the government has paid a counterpart fund.
Flagging off the programme, AbdulRazaq stated that one of the early commitments of his administration is the expression of interest in the Immunisation Plus and Malaria Progress by Accelerating Coverage and Transforming Service (IMPACT) project.
This, he said, is by meeting all the necessary requirements, including the payment of $100,000 counterpart fund.
He stated that this is to enable the PHCs to have some level of financial autonomy and the capacity to optimally deliver basic healthcare services to the people.
The governor observed that PHC is the closest healthcare service to the people and the first contact of the community with the national health system.
He however pointed out that the reverse was the case in this state before, as facilities across PHCs had collapsed.
“This overstretched the secondary and tertiary health facilities and led to spike in the rate of preventable health crises.
“This investment fund will help infrastructural upgrade and other interventions in the benefitting health facilities across our state.
“It will deepen public confidence in the essential primary healthcare services at our PHC facilities,” he said.
Also speaking, Dr Raji Razaq, the state Commissioner for Health, explained that the state government secured a World Bank funding to support infrastructure upgrade in at least one primary healthcare facility in each of the 193 wards of the state.
According to him, this is possible as a result of AbdulRazaq’s constant payment of counterpart funds for different healthcare services.
Razaq submitted that since the creation of the state in 1967, no government has expended such huge amount on PHCs across the state.
“Since inception of this government, there has been prompt payment of salaries and salary increase.
“There has also been payment of counterpart funding,” he said.
The commissioner therefore tasked the PHCs to abide by the set rules and regulations, adding that they will be accountable for the success of the programme.
Earlier in her welcoming address, Dr Nusirat Elelu, the Executive Secretary of the state Primary Health Care Development Agency, said that it took the special intervention from the state government to be one of the 14 benefitting states from the World Bank assisted IMPACT project.
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She explained that the project has, as part of its main component, a Decentralised Facility Financing (DFF) to PHCs.
“Through the DFF, an initial disbursement of investment fund of the Naira equivalent of $10,000 to one PHC centre, in each of the 193 geopolitical wards in the state,” she said.
Elelu pointed out that the investment fund is meant to support the PHCs to achieve an ideal level-2 PHC centre, that has the capacity to provide the basic minimum package of health services.
In her goodwill message, Mrs Hanifa Hassan of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency,( NPHCDA) commended the state government for the IMPACT project.
She also called on stakeholders to be accountable in ensuring the success of the project. (NAN)
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