Chinyere Amalu
12 November 2008
THE Federal Government has said that in its quest to achieve the MDGs by 2015, it has decided to commit the debt relief funds to boost activities that would facilitate the actualisation of the goals especially health related ones.
President Musa Yar'Adua who disclosed this through the Minister of Health Dr. Hassan Lawal, at the Presidential flag-off of Niger State NHIS/MDGs free medical services for pregnant women and under-5 children yesterday in Minna, Niger State, said six states would benefit from the project.
According to Mr. President, the project which has started in Niger State would be scaled-up to cover all states of the federation in no distance time adding that Goal 4 and 5, which boarders on reducing maternal and infant mortality is most challenging goals of all.
"In our quest to achieve MDGs, we have decided to utilize resources from the debt relief funds to boos the activities that will fast track achievement of the MDGs, especially in the health sector.
"Therefore, we need to adopt a whoilistic approach to tackle the national health indices, and as well address constant death of pregnant women at child birth. These unfortunate incidents have contributed immensely to non-realization of these goals", he said.
Commending the efforts of Niger State Government for being the first state to benefit from the project due to their strong commitment to prevent the unfortunate death of mother and child in the state, Yar' Adua also called on all the state Government of the six beneficiary states to match the grants to ensure that all pregnant women and children in Nigeria enjoy free access to health.
In his address, the Governor of Niger State, Dr. Mu'azu Babangida Aliyu, called on married couples all Niger State to take the issue of child spacing serious irrespective of religion.
According to him, there is nowhere in Islamic religion that condemned child-spacing, adding that protection of lives of pregnant women should be of top priority to all married men.
In his goodwill message, the Executive Secretary of National Insurance Health Scheme (NHIS) Dr. Muhammad Dogo, listed the first six beneficiary states as; Bayelsa, Gombe, Imo, Niger, Oyo and Sokoto, adding that these states would be used to scale-up the projects to cover the entire country subsequently.
He noted that about 600,000 pregnant women from the six states would benefit from the project.
"The sum of N5 billion has been earmarked for the project and is to provide cover to 621,386 potential enrolees in six selected states (approximately 100,000 beneficiaries per state). This translates to a minimum of N700 million being expended in each state", he explained.
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