As part of plans to cushion the effects of poor funding in the health sector, the Centre for Communication and Reproductive Health (CCRHS) has called on the Niger State government to initiate moves to sign additional memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with international donors.
While making this known over the weekend during a visit to the Executive Director, Niger State Primary Health Care Development Agency (SPHCDA), Dr Ibrahim Dangana, the Project Director, CCRHS, Dr. Yabagi Shehu said the State needs to improve health budget releases.
He also lamented that “the funding shortages from domestic sources to the SPHCDA in the long run affects effective implemenation of activities across the sector.”
According to Dr Yabagi “we want the Agency to initiate moves for the State to sign additional MoUs with other international donors to cushion the effect of the poor funding shortages from domestic sources to improve effective health care service delivery and enhance the achievement of the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) in the State.
He added that there is the need for the State to relate with major stakeholders for the fulfilment of the 15 percent allocation from the revenues of the local governments to SPHCDA to further strengthen the Primary Health Care Under One Roof (PHCUOR) policy implementation and the Primary Health Care (PHC) system.
Furthermore, Dr Yabagi commended the Agency for its efforts in strengthening PHCUOR policy implementation to the level of the State achieving of 93 percent feat in the National score card 5 assessment as well as the ongoing revitalization of focal PHCs across the 274 wards in Niger state.
In his remarks, the Executive Director, SPHCDA, said the Agency is doing its best to strengthen the 25 local government areas offices with the necessary facilities to function.
While commending the CCRHS-PAS and Niger state Partners for helping to reposition the Agency, Dr Dangana lamented that, the Agency have not gotten financial releases even though various memos were submitted.