The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, has announced that primary healthcare centers in Nigeria see roughly 80 million contacts each year. This information was shared during a strategic engagement with stakeholders from north-central and south-western states in Abuja over the weekend.
During his address, the minister noted that Nigeria is making strides in improving healthcare access and the quality of services provided to citizens at the primary healthcare level. He attributed these advancements to ongoing health sector reforms. Despite the existing challenges, several states have shown considerable improvements in areas such as skilled birth attendance, antenatal care participation, and data reporting metrics.
He remarked, “In some areas, the performance is marginal, but we’re also learning from each other. Overall, we’re seeing improvement in how states are reporting data about their performance. Just to put it in context, every quarter about 20 million contacts are made with Nigerians through the primary health care system that has now been revamped.”
He clarified, “That means about 80 million contacts annually. It doesn’t mean 80 million people, but it means at least 80 million contacts per year, which means that the primary health care system, imperfect as it may be, is beginning to pick up because of the reforms that this government started under the leadership of the president and with the support of all the states, the local government, civil society, and development partners, as well as Nigerians, because it is all of us, including community leaders, traditional leaders, that have to demand for the care.”
Prof. Pate indicated that the health sector has faced years of inadequate investment. He emphasized that while it may take time to achieve the desired transformation in the health sector, the current administration has made intentional investments in the past two years, with many states matching the federal government’s efforts.
He stated, “We expect that the joint review will take place on an annual basis, and that the state of health report will be produced. So that Nigerians get a sense of where we are. We have a health sector that has had many years of under investments, but this administration over the last two years, deliberately, under the leadership of the president, has invested, and many state governments are matching what the federal government is trying to do. So, it’s a continuous process, and it will take us some time for Nigeria’s health sector to be the way we want it to be.”
“But we have started that journey of transformation, and we all have to continue on that path. We have to join hands with the federal government and state, local governments also have to step up. The civil society organizations and the media also have to educate Nigerians that health is one thing that should bring everybody together, because it affects all of us.”
With the federal government taking the lead and states getting involved, early signs of improvement are becoming apparent, although sustaining progress remains vital. “We are committed to ensuring that Nigerians benefit from these improvements we are making in the system,” Prof. Pate assured.
Dr. Muntaqa Umar Sadiq, the National Coordinator of Sector Wide Approach (SWAp), highlighted that states are engaging in performance dialogues to assess key indicators, allowing them to reflect on their progress and pinpoint areas that require collective efforts.
He noted, “For the first time, we’ve not only had dialogues looking at the same sets of indicators with every single state, but we’ve had a joint annual review and we’re building on that to have these performance dialogues that feed into their annual operating plans so that in the sector wide, when we say one plan, one budget, one report and one conversation, it speaks to an aggregation of every single state’s plans. And that’s why we’re quite excited.”
States have successfully identified their challenges and bottlenecks hindering progress. Some have taken steps to address issues that previously resulted in poor performance evaluations, with the ministry prepared to assist states in overcoming these hurdles.
Looking ahead, Dr. Sadiq expressed optimism that these efforts would lead to improved health outcomes for the population, where facilities operate efficiently, primary healthcare centers are linked to CMAL facilities, emergency services function effectively, and treatments for conditions like malaria, as well as maternal and child health initiatives, are readily available.
Prof. Odimayo Michael, the Special Adviser on Health to the Ondo State Governor, remarked that ongoing health initiatives are enhancing the entire health sector in Nigeria, adding, “We are actually having a system in the country at this time that is responsive to the health of the people.”