The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Ali Pate, says the federal government will disburse N50 billion to Primary Healthcare Centers (PHC) in the first quarter of 2024.

He disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja during the fifth Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) and Ministerial Oversight Committee meeting.

According to Mr Pate, the funds already accrued in the BHCPF will be disbursed through the state’s PHC facilities to deliver services to women and children.

“That is part of the target that President Bola Tinubu has set for us so that we can expand the facilities over the next four years from 8,000 to almost 17,000 PHCs,” said the health minister. “Also, to enrol more vulnerable Nigerians to have access to quality health care services.”

He also said the committee’s work was to continue as it would refine the criteria, issues of the package and how providers are paid. Mr Pate added that the committee would ensure that it’s embedded in the context of improved accountability and answerability so that the facilities receiving these resources at both the state and local government levels can answer to their people.

“They will be able to say what they are using the resources for, as well as what we do at the federal government level to respond to Nigerians in terms of the progress we will be making over the next four years,” the minister said. 

He added, “We will do that transparently, of course correcting as may be necessary, but all on the path to achieve the direction that the President has set for us to improve the health and well being of Nigerians.”

The chairman of the Forum of Health Commissioners in Nigeria, Oyebanji Filani, said the meeting was to debate, review and agree on a set of issues that would enable the country to move towards a very clear path to achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) using the BHCPF.

“We have discussed a number of challenges that we have had, we explored opportunities to address these challenges, and we’re quite confident that as we go into the new year, we will be moving in the right direction.

“With respect to memos, we cleared out one critical memo that provides an underlying basis for improved accountability and fiduciary transparency of how funds are disbursed and how we are able to monitor it,” he added.

The country representative of the WHO, Dr Walter Mulombo, said that the deliberations at the meeting were encouraging, especially as it followed the Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative, which was recently unveiled.

He added that the discussions at the meeting were in the right direction because they set the tone for a reset and business unusual to accelerate achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

(NAN)