FG Revamps Over 4,000 PHCs, Urges States To Sustain Health Care Services
By Ferdinand Olise
The Federal Government has charged States and Local Governments to take greater responsibility for sustaining primary healthcare services, warning that investments in rehabilitating health centres can be undermined when there is no adequate staffing, maintenance and operational funding.
The Executive Director of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Muyi Aina, who gave the charge in Abuja at the Agency’s quarterly media briefing, following the revitalisation of over four thousand Primary Healthcare Centres across the country, said over three thousand of the facilities had been fully renovated, commissioned and handed over to State and Local Governments.
Dr. Aina said construction and refurbishment continued at ninety-one others, stressing that the federal government’s interventions were designed to strengthen the primary healthcare system rather than assume the responsibilities of sub-national authorities.
According to him, the government is expanding efforts to improve access to essential healthcare services particularly in underserved communities, noting that State and Local Governments remain primarily responsible for the day-to-day operation and maintenance of the facilities, including ensuring that health workers are employed on a permanent basis.
Meanwhile, the Director-General of the National Health Insurance Authority, Dr Kelechi Ohiri, said the Authority is moving to extend health insurance to app-based workers, delivery personnel, self-employed Nigerians and in-mates in correctional facilities as part of efforts to widen access to affordable healthcare beyond conventional employment arrangements.
He said the number of Nigerians covered by health insurance had risen by forty-two per cent to twenty-three point zero, two million from approximately sixteen million in January 2024.
