The Abia State Commissioner for Health, Dr. John Ahukanna, says the state has keyed into the new United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded Health Policy Plus (HP+).
Ahukanna made the disclosure in Umuahia on Tuesday at a seminar organised by the agency.
The commissioner said that government was convinced that the programme had the potential to boost healthcare delivery in the state.
He said that the initiative would help to provide financial support to the health sector and make healthcare services affordable to the citizenry, especially those in the rural communities.
He thanked the agency for choosing Abia for the HP+ Phase 1 pilot scheme and gave the assurance that the state government would ensure its successful implementation.
The commissioner charged the agency to adopt in Abia, the same template that had helped the programme to succeed in other states in the interest of the potential enrollees.
He expressed joy that the initiative would help the state Primary Health Care Delivery Agency and Health Insurance Agency to attain their full potential in achieving a functional health sector.
Earlier, the Country Director of HP+, Mr Ezire Onoriode, expressed delight over the state government’s demonstrable commitment toward the initiative.
Onoriode, represented by Mr Peter Oshaji, the Team Leader of the programme, said that already, the state government had provided its N100 million counterpart fund for the programme.
He disclosed that the state recently finalised its Strategic Health Development Plan 2 and also put in place a steering committee for the programme.
According to him, the key tenet of HP+ is to maximize resources for health by increasing sustainable, predictable and adequate financing for health programs and health policy implementation.
The country director said that the programme was working in Abia to strenghten its health financing structures and capacity to capitalise on key health financing reforms.
He said that the agency, in conjunction with Palladium, the programme implementers were also involved in the areas of family planning and reproductive health, HIV and maternal health.
Onoriede said that the agency was working with key stakeholders in Abia to advance three key objectives, which included strengthening governance, coordination and synchronization to sustain stewardship and ownership of health financing reforms.
He expressed delight that Nigeria was undergoing significant health financing reforms and hoped that if fully implemented, would substantially increase resources for health and extended primary health care to all Nigerians.
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Oshaji said that no fewer than 700,000 rural dwellers were being targeted to enroll for the programme in Abia.
He charged the state government to scale up funding for its health insurance agency to enhance its capacity the challenges ahead.
The team leader said that the agency would train facility managers, ward development committee chairmen and institutions on their roles to make HP+ successful in Abia.
