Federal Government says over 70 per cent of primary healthcare centres across Nigeria do not have the right infrastructure, drugs and utilities.
The Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib, said this lamenting, adding that the healthcare centres had limited workers.
He spoke in Abuja on Monday at the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the NPHCDA and the Connected Development (CODE), a civil society organization, to strengthen and foster health sector accountability in the country.
Shuaib said, “This kind of partnership is a giant step towards transparency and openness in the NPHCDA. This MoU signing is an opportunity to openly demonstrate this transparency.
“We welcome this collaboration because it is also an opportunity to hear from people we serve.
“It is an opportunity to get feedback on the services that will be delivered.”
He said that the kind of collaboration would enable civil society organisations to evaluate, gather data and advocate for more resources which would be funnelled towards strengthening the primary healthcare sector in Nigeria.
The Chief Executive, CODE, Hamzat Lawal noted that the first step towards achieving a better healthcare system in Africa is to identify and proffer solutions to the gaps that currently exist in the system.
He said in July 2021, using its “FollowTheMoney” social accountability tool, CODE tracked 90 primary healthcare centres in 15 states across Nigeria and discovered that 80 per cent of them were substandard and unfit to store and effectively administer COVID-19 vaccines.
He said this had hindered access and equitable distribution of vaccines to Nigeria’s large population.
“A large number of Nigerians, especially those living in remote communities, rely on PHCs for their health concerns. There exists a myriad of challenges within the primary healthcare system which we’re working to uncover with the aim of identifying solutions that’ll improve service delivery and enhance the healthcare system in Nigeria and all across Africa,” Lawal added.