The Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Health, Mr. Linus Awute, has decried the non-implementation of the series of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) the Ministry entered with other countries on health matters.
The Permanent Secretary made this known in Abuja on Wednesday at the inauguration of the Bilateral Affairs Committee (BAG).
He said that the Ministry has had series of engagements with other countries that have manifested in the form of MOUs adding that these MOUs are either in the process of development or they have been concluded and there are no follow up activities or they have even been totally forgotten.
He said that available information revealed that many of the Bilateral Agreements and Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) on Health matters that Nigeria has entered with other countries were not maximally utilized.
He said that in order to reverse this trend, there is need for effective involvement of all relevant stakeholders and implementers of the MOUs, stressing that the Bilateral Affairs Committee was born out of the need to effectively and efficiently coordinate the implementation of all MOUs between Nigeria and other countries.
He reminded members of the Committee that it is their duty to ensure that all MOUs signed by their departments, agencies or programmes, independent of Federal Ministry of Health or signed through the Ministry, must be forwarded to the Committee for proper coordination and articulation.
He also said that the Ministry is supposed to produce the result of such collaborations and report to National Panning Commission and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The mandates of the Committee include among others to boost bilateral cooperation between Nigeria and other countries of interest and also to identify possible countries that Nigeria could enter into profitable agreement with on Health matters.
The Committee has 19 members with Mrs. Ansa Ogu, Director, Health Planning Research and Statistics as the Chairperson.
