The Executive Secretary of the Kwara State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Nusirat Elelu, has urged the state government to work harder to close the gaps in human resources and infrastructure in the state’s health sector.
Mrs Elelu made this recommendation on Wednesday while briefing the State Executive Council on the status of primary health care in the state.
He said that while Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq's administration has recorded some successes, there is still a lot to be done in the sector.
The official said the primary health care sub-sector was plagued by overall infrastructure collapse, non-payment of counterpart funds and withdrawal of development partners, poor demand for primary health care services, lack of coordination between state and local government areas, and poor quality and availability of data.
He said the current administration has resolved most of the challenges, but can do more, especially in the areas of health infrastructure and human resources. He commends the recent recruitment exercise and the approval by the state government of N70,000 as minimum wage.
“We have made significant progress anyway. For example, the State has completely renovated 31 primary health care centers, and several others are in different stages of renovation. We now have at least one functional primary care center in all 193 wards, compared to before when seven wards did not have a primary care center,” he said.
“In addition, five primary health care centers are currently being renovated with funds from the primary health care leadership challenge award won by the state in 2023. In addition, 111 primary health care centers will be renovated under the program BHCPF and World Bank Primary Health Care Revitalization Program. 16 LGA central cold storage warehouses have also been solarized to improve cold chain capacity for vaccination. Additionally, a total of 79 wells have been drilled in the state's primary health care centers, while 79 extension vans and 89 motorcycles have been purchased to increase the delivery of primary health care services in our hard-to-reach settlements. . “16 ambulances were also deployed to improve emergency care in the LGA.”
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Ms Elelu said the results have been positive and Kwara has one of the highest prenatal care coverage in Nigeria.
“In 2023, a total of 620,925 pregnant women attended prenatal care, compared to 94,276 pregnant women in 2020 (DHIS2),” it said.
“There was an increase of more than 220% in the number of births between 2020 and 2023, as primary care centers were the preferred location for births, demonstrating greater confidence in our health system. General hospital care has also greatly improved: more than 1.3 million Kwarans have attended primary care facilities in each of the last four years.
“There has been a huge reduction from 1,508 to 570 (62.2%) pregnant women reporting severe anemia. Kwara State emerged as the best state in the country, with over 117% coverage of children aged 9 to 14 years during HPV vaccination this year. In January 2023, Kwara received the overall best supplemental polio outbreak response (OBR) award in the country.”
He said there have also been high-quality supplementary immunization campaigns, and the state has been consistently green in all Batch Quality Assurance (LQA) surveys conducted by WHO in the last two years, with more than 1.5 million children vaccinated in each round.
Lawal Olohungbebe, Senior Special Adviser to the Governor on Community Development, also told the council that community organizations were being mobilized for grassroots empowerment and development.
He said the interventions in January included the installation of 60 solar power poles in different parts of the state and the distribution of social protection materials worth billions of naira. These included rice palliatives, 42,000 bags of fertilizer for 11,000 farmers, 18,000 bags of maize and sorghum for 3,000 households, the construction of 20 smart toilets to curb open defecation, the drilling of 20 wells in selected settlements and the distribution of grants to 498 communities around the world. state.
Olohungbebe noted that the state recently held a CBO Summit, which brought together 901 organisations.
He added that a KWATRECO initiative trained youth to fix some public facilities without overburdening the government.
Citing global best practices, Olohungbebe urged the government to introduce a legal framework to guide agencies operating in the state, a special economic plan for people living with disabilities, a rural infrastructure maintenance plan to address the challenge of keeping public facilities in good condition, and an initiative that matters for all districts, among others.
Cabinet members took turns debating the presentations, including the question of whether current local government autonomy serves the best interests of workers and grassroots people.
Governor Abdul Razak commended the presentations and urged the council members to submit to the Office of the Secretary to the State Government their proposals on different interventions that could further boost good governance and citizen participation.
He said the state government carried out all infrastructure interventions in APS and basic schools as local councils have fallen short in this regard for decades due to lack of funds.
The governor said the government is committed to making more investments to strengthen infrastructure and human resources in the basic health sector.