By Paul Efiong
A comprehensive health package aimed at addressing most of Nigeria’s health challenges has been launched in Abuja, Nigeria’s Capital.
Speaking during the event, the Minister of State for Health, Osagie Ehanire noted with delight that with the launch of ‘the Nigeria Service Delivery Innovation Challenge’ most perennial challenges in the country will vanish soon.
The program according to the Minister, is under the Global Finance Facility for every Woman, Every Child with the main objective of reducing mother, child maternal death toll in the country.
He further explained that the Nigeria Service Delivery Challenge (NSDC) was conceived as a competitive process to identify, showcase and spur innovation in the service delivery to improve the quality and coverage of RMNCA and nutrition intervention in the North-East Nigeria and undeserved population.
The program under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) though new in the country will ensure a total innovation in health sector so as to improve the delivery of basic primary healthcare services with the aim to expand quality services at population level with emphasize on under-served population.
On Project finance, the minister disclosed that such will be co-designed with his ministry based on the outcome of the challenge and will also be driven by the finance proposal and scale of the selected nine innovators.
Meanwhile, a source close to this medium has revealed that though many health related organizations applied for partnership on the scheme but only nine were successful.
A source who confirmed the development added that the Ministry of Health in partnership with a Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (PHN) as well as the healthcare Federation of Nigeria, which are implementing partners issued a Request for Concerpt Note (RFCN) to solicite submissions from innovators, entreprenurs, organizations, NGO’s as well as other non-state actors with promising innovations in Service delivery to participate in the Nigeria Service Delivery Innovation Challenge(NSDIC).
Speakers at the event spoke of the advantages of the new health program in the country maintaining that the innovation when implemented will increase the coverage of RMNCAH and nutrition interventions.
Also, they claimed that the programm will also improve the quality of care in that it will improve availability of life saving commodities as well as strentherning the availability, timeliness and civil registration and statistics system.
Some stakeholders present at the occasion pleaded for program consistency stressing that most problems in the health sector in the country have always been on implimentation.
As at the time of filling this report, participants at the occasion were on the look out for the launch proper of the program by the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo.
