The Minister
of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, has commended the World Bank for injecting
the sum of $171.5 million into the Nigeria Health Investment Project (NSHIP) to
strengthen Performance Based Financing (PBF) system across Primary and
Secondary Health facilities in the Pilot states of Adamawa, Nassarawa and Ondo
since 2011.
He also
said, the extension of Additional Financing/Nigeria Health Investment Project
(AF-NSHIP) in five north east states of Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Taraba and Gombe
in the 2017 intervention programme was in line with President Muhammadu
Buhari’s mandate to rehabilitate and restore health service delivery system,
considering the growing challenges of insecurity posed by insurgency and other
health needs faced in the region.
The Minister
stated this on Monday while flagging off a 2- Day 2017 Mid-Term Review Meeting,
MTR to measure the impact that NSHIP has over the life span of the project
which took place at Nigeria Air force Base Conference Centre and Suite in
Abuja.
The MTR is
being coordinated by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency,
NPHCDA under the leadership of the Executive Director, Dr. Faisal Shuaibu and
the National Project Coordinator, Hajiya Binta Isma’il, given the role of
providing technical support for project implementation ensure NSHIP achieve its
objectives in identifying and describe the successes, challenges and critical
issues in the design and implementation over the past four years.
Professor
Adewole while declaring the meeting open, urged other state governors to
emulate the tremendous innovations of the health sector in Adamawa, Nassarawa,
Ondo which were the three pilot states and by extension the Five AF-North East
states key into the NSHIP, rather than depending on Development Partners.
His words: ”
I want to commend the World Bank and the Federal Government implementing NSHIP
which is a strictly on Performance Based Financing (PBF) approach which has
improved Healthcare service in the project states of Adamawa, Nassarawa and
Ondo. I am also delighted to see that the AF-NSHIP, which is a flashy project
in other North East States of Borno, Taraba, Bauchi, Yobe among others have
started to yield positive results in their health sector.
“It is my
hope and believe that very soon, I will drive the Executive Director NPHCDA to
the Nigeria Governors Forum to key into this Project, as it will enhance
transparency of resources, strengthen accountability at the Primary and
Secondary level through qualitative and quantitative Health System in Nigeria
and ensure effective participation of communities at the grassroots”. The
Minister said.
Earlier in
his opening remarks, the Executive Director NPHCDA, Dr. Shuaibu recalled that
the traditional input financing in Nigeria has translated into very slow
progress in the improvement of Health indices with little advances in service
delivery and no increase in accountability of providers and users, but with
adoption of NSHIP with support from World Bank, there is increasing evidence of
positive impact of PBF on health system performance, provider behaviour and
quality of care with improve safe delivery and reduction of maternal mortality.
He noted
that the NSHIP through the PBF approach has helped to address most of the
bottlenecks bedevilling the health sector of the participating states, as there
is significant improvement in the 52 Local Government Areas of 3/pre -pilot
states and by extension five AF-NSHIP states in the north east.
He stressed
that statistical evidences have shown that the usage of main maternal and Child
health services had a steady increase, adding that, percentage of target
outpatients reached have also increased from 40.0% to 82.38%, with proportion
of using modern family planning methods and Antenatal services doubled from
2015 to date, while there was also 7.15% increase in the targeted number of
deliveries to 60.36% and a 26.6% increase in fully vaccinated children to 100%
in the participating states.
In his
Goodwill message, Representative of the World Bank Country Director, Dr.
Benjamin Loevinson assured that the organization is fully committed to the
development of the health sector across Nigeria, and pledged to continue
support NSHIP through PBF for the benefit of Health Workers and their Clients
in both Public and Private Health Facilities.
The MTR
meeting was attended by the Commissioners of Health and Finance from the
participating states, including Borno.
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