The Nigerian government has said it is committed to the improvement of maternal and newborn health in the country. Minister of Health, Prof.C.O.Chukwu gave
the assurance in Abuja at a Ministerial Press Briefing to commemorate
the 2014 Safe Motherhood Day with the theme: “Universal Health Coverage
for Improved Maternal and Newborn”.
Chukwu said this year’s theme was
strategic as it brings to focus the importance of universal health
coverage unlocking the door for significant improvement in the health
status of Nigerians.
According to him, the concept of Universal
Health Coverage came to the fore in 2005 following the World Health
Assembly (resolution 58, 33) with member states of World Health
Organisation (WHO) committing into developing their health financing
systems so that all people have access to services and do not suffer
financial hardship paying for them.
Universal Health Coverage is regarded as
the single most powerful concept that public health has to offer; it
unifies services and delivers in a comprehensive and integrated way,
based on primary healthcare.
Prof.Chukwu said that going by the
support of numerous stakeholders worldwide on the benefits of Universal
Health Coverage (UHC), the Nigerian Federal and State Governments a are
implementing a number of initiatives for the attainment of UHC in
Nigeria.
He added that the Federal Government of
Nigeria launched the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in 2005 to
address financial risk protection, removing financial barriers to
accessing health services.
He enumerated other complementary
financing options at Federal and State levels that has helped to
improve financial access to services includes community based health
insurance, fee exemption scheme, conditional and non-conditional cash
transfer adding that despite these efforts, the per centage of Nigerians
covered by any form of pre-payment scheme has remained less than 10% of
the population.
He mentioned some of the current effort
of government with regards to Safe Motherhood Programme in Nigeria
include among others Government contribution of three million dollars
for the procurement of contraceptive commodities in 2011,increase
uptake of family planning contraceptive flag off of free contraceptive
commodities on the 7th of April,2011 and the G-WIN Project a
presidential initiative geared towards empowering women and girls to
contribute positively to the development of the nation.
Continuing, he said a detailed
implementation plan for the country’s life-saving commodities for women
and children which Mr. President co-chaired with the Norwegian President
has been developed and lunched under Mr. President’s Saving One Million
Lives Initiative.
He noted that this initiative will
address critical gaps and barriers that currently exist and limit the
supply and demand for the priority commodities stressing that under this
initiative the Federal Government is procuring and distributing the
life saving commodities to the states.
In his goodwill message, the WHO Country
Representative, Dr.Rui Vaz assured that WHO and its agencies will
continue to support the Federal Ministry of Health in ensuring that
there are enabling policies, strategies, norms and guidelines that
support safe-motherhood.
He said that WHO is working in the
states to conduct training needs assessment and building capacity of
midwives to ensure and maintain skilled birth attendance.
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