The Nasarawa State Government, through the State Primary Health Care Development Agency has embarked on the revitalisation of 58 health facilities across the state.
The Executive Secretary of the Nasarawa State Healthcare Development Agency (NAPHDA) , Dr Usman Saleh stated this on Wednesday when he received members of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists ( NUJ), on a courtesy visit.
According to him, the project is part of the state’s efforts to achieve universal health coverage and ensure accessible, affordable and quality healthcare services to all residents.
Dr Saleh revealed that the revitalisation project, which is being supported by the World Bank and other partners, aims to upgrade the infrastructure and equipment of the selected health facilities, ensuring that they provide comprehensive and quality healthcare services to the population.
The Executive Secretary noted that the project is expected to be completed by June this year.
“We are committed to ensuring that our citizens have access to quality healthcare services, and this project is a significant step towards achieving that goal.
“Primary health care is not only supported by state. We have most of partners, including World Bank and others.They are supporting us and most of these supporters and partners have a template that they want us to follow and we must make sure that the template is followed.
“We have more than 770 primary healthcare facilities in Nasarawa state.Of all those facilities, we have what we call high-volume facilities and we have basic health care provision fund facilities.
“The basic health care provision fund facilities are being funded from 1% of Nigerian revenue and other partners.
“We have 147 electoral wards in Nasarawa State and each ward is expected to have one, same for each ward across the country.
“So by Nigerian government, it’s expected that by the end of 2025, all these facilities, including the 147 in Nasarawa state must be functional and revitalised to provide 24 hours services,” he said.
He lauded the Governor of the State, Engr Abdullahi Sule for prioritising the healthcare of the citizens of the state, adding that the governor is committed to affordable and accessible health care delivering across the state.
He, therefore called for collaboration with stakeholders, including the media, to ensure its success saying “We value the role of the media in promoting health awareness and education, and we look forward to working closely with you to ensure that our citizens are informed about the services available to them.”
Earlier, the Chairman of the Correspondent Chapel of the NUJ, Mr Isaac Ukpoju, congratulated the Executive Secretary, Dr Saleh, on his appointment as the head of state’s agency, expressing their willingness to partner and support the agency’s mission to provide quality healthcare to the people of the State.
Ukpoju who led the courtesy visit, commended the state government for the appointment, stating that it was a demonstration of the governor’s commitment to the health sector.
He also highlighted the chapel’s smooth working relationship with the state government, particularly in information dissemination and expressed the chapel’s willingness to project the agency’s mission and activities.
