Mr Asishana Okuaru, the Director-General of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), has commended state governors’ efforts in achieving polio-free status in 2020.
Okuaru, who gave the commendation at the Nigeria Health Commissioners forum quarterly meeting on Thursday in Abuja, emphasised that the commitment of state governors was instrumental to the feat.
He said the NGF secretariat had maintained a deep relationship with Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) as well as partners.
The DG explained that the Health Commissioners were central to the relationship, which had seen a phenomenal rise in the number of states with Health Insurance Agencies.
Okuaro noted that governors were strengthening their Primary Healthcare System through their Seattle Declaration.
He said the NGF Secretariat had been working on health financing, which was a major challenge to the sustainability of health interventions.
“The secretariat is, therefore, conceptualising a ‘Tax for Service’ model as a mechanism for handling the health financing issues at the subnational level,” the DG said.
Mrs Olusola Idowu, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, in her goodwill message, urged the Health Commissioners to work out modalities on how the state ministries of health would work collaboratively with their respective ministries of budget and economic planning.
According to her, this will avoid duplications and ensure efficiency and accountability.
The permanent secretary advised that partners should be distributed across the 36 states of the country to ensure every state benefited from the health partners. (NAN)
