Kwara State Executive Council on Wednesday received extensive briefings on the state of the primary healthcare system in the state, offering valuable insights into the gains so far made and the challenges ahead.
The council was also briefed about some social protection initiatives of the administration, especially those domiciled in the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Community Development as well as the processes leading to and the trade-offs from the adoption of a new minimum wage.
Executive Secretary of the Primary Health Care Development Agency Dr. Nusirat Elelu said that while the government must work harder to bridge the gaps in human resources and infrastructural needs in the sub-sector, it has posted sterling successes that set the administration apart from its predecessors.
The subsector had been plagued by the general collapse of infrastructure, non-payment of counterpart funds and withdrawal of development partners, poor demand for primary health care services, lack of coordination between the state and local government areas, and poor data quality and availability, according to Dr Elelu.
She said the current administration has resolved most of the challenges, but it can do more, especially in the areas of infrastructure and human resources for health, commending the recent recruitment exercise to bridge the identified gap and the approval of the 70,000 minimum wage by Kwara State.
“We have made significant strides, regardless. For instance, 31 PHCs have been completely renovated by the state with several others at different stages of renovation. We now have at least one functional PHC in all the 193 wards as against previously when 7 wards didn’t have a PHC,” she said.
“In addition, five PHCs are currently undergoing renovation with funds from the PHC leadership challenge award won by the state in 2023. Additionally, 111 PHCs are going to be renovated under the BHCPF and World Bank PHC Revitalisation programme. There has also been solarisation of 16 LGA central cold stores to improve cold chain capacity for vaccination. Furthermore, a total of 79 boreholes have been sunk in the PHCs in the state, while 79 outreach vans and 89 motorcycles have been purchased to increase PHC services delivery to our hard-to-reach settlements. 16 ambulances were also deployed to improve emergency care at the LGA.”
She said the outcomes have been positively huge, with Kwara having one of the highest ante-natal care coverage in Nigeria.
“In 2023, a total of 620,925 pregnant women attended ANC, compared to 94,276 pregnant women in 2020 (DHIS2),” she said.
“There was over 220% increase in the number of deliveries between 2020 and 2023 as PHCs were the preferred place of delivery, showing improved confidence in our health system. General hospital attendance has also improved tremendously, with over 1.3 million Kwarans attending PHCs in each of the last four years.
“There has been a huge reduction from 1,508 to 570 (62.2%) pregnant women reported with severe anaemia. Kwara State emerged as the overall best state in the country with over 117% coverage of children aged 9-14 years during the HPV vaccination this year. In January 2023, Kwara was awarded the overall best in supplemental polio outbreak response (OBR) in the country.”
She said there have also been high-quality supplemental immunization campaigns such that the state has been consistently green in all WHO-conducted Lot Quality Assurance surveys (LQAs) since last two years with over 1.5m children vaccinated in each round.
Dr. Lawal Olohungbebe, SSA Community Development, also told the council how the administration has mobilised community based organizations for grassroots empowerment and development.
These interventions between January 2024 and now included installation of 60 solar-powered poles in different parts of the state and distribution of social protection materials worth billions of naira, including rice palliatives, 42,000 bags of fertilisers to 11,000 farmers, 18,000 bags of maize and sorghum to 3,000 households, construction of 20 smart toilets to curb open defecation, sinking of 20 boreholes to selected settlements, and distribution of grants to 498 communities across the state.
The state had recently held a CBO Summit, which brought together 901 organisations with a focus on the best practices to advance grassroots development, Olohungbebe said.
The KWATRECO initiative succeeded in training young people on how to fix some public facilities with no burden on the government, he added.
Citing global best practices, Olohungbebe also recommended a legal framework to guide the operations of different bodies operating in the state, a special economic scheme for persons living with disabilities, a rural infrastructure maintenance scheme to tackle the challenge of keeping public facilities in good shape, and an every-ward-matters initiative, among others.
Cabinet members took turns to debate the presentations, including the question of making sure that the current local government autonomy serves the best interest of workers and the people at the grassroots.
The Governor commended the presentations and urged that council members submit to the Office of the Secretary to the State Government their proposals on different interventions that could further drive good governance and citizen engagement.
He recalled that all the infrastructural interventions at the PHCs and basic schools were by the state government as the local councils have fallen short in that regard for decades for lack of funds.
He said the government is committed to making more investments to strengthen infrastructure and human resources in the basic health sector.
