Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council has approved the final report that will improve the nation’s basic healthcare.
Minister of State for Health, Mr. Tunji Alausa, who disclosed this to State House Correspondents at the end of this week’s cabinet meeting chaired by President Bola Tinubu, said the report is to boost the basic healthcare provision fund.
He adds that the healthcare fund will also help increase immunization and maternal and child health for Nigerian children.
He said: “In furtherance of the President’s commitment and firm belief that a healthy nation is the core to harnessing our greatest asset, which is human capital,
“Today, the Council approved the report of our Basic Healthcare Provision Fund and sector-wide approach. That approach was launched on December 23, 2023 by President Bola Tinubu where the President signed a compact agreement with the 36 state governors.
“What we have done with the sector-wide approach is to boost the three gateways to the basic healthcare provision fund; the Primary Healthcare gateway, the National health Insurance gateway and the Emergency Services gateway. So we are now aligning what our development partners are spending so that we can begin to eliminate the defragmentation that we have in the system.”
He said that with the new development, there will be better coordination between development partners and the healthcare providers in order to mobilize more resources for the Primary Healthcare Centres across the country.
The health minister also announced that the Council gave approval for the procurement of a computed tomography scanner; popularly called CT scanner, for the Teaching Hospital in Gombe State, North-east Nigeria.
He said the decision was taken in line with President Bola Tinibu’s commitment to the provision of comprehensive healthcare for all Nigerians.