The Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, has commended the World Bank for injecting the sum of $171.5 million (U.S Dollars) into the Nigeria Health Investment Project (NSHIP) to strengthen Performance Based Financing (PBF) system across Primary and Secondary Health facilities in the Pilot states of Adamawa, Nassarawa and Ondo since 2011.
He also said, the extension of Additional Financing/Nigeria Health Investment Project (AF-NSHIP) in five north east states of Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Taraba and Gombe in the 2017 intervention programme was in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s mandate to rehabilitate and restore health service delivery system, considering the growing challenges of insecurity posed by insurgency and other health needs faced in the region.
The Minister stated this on Monday while flagging off a 2- Day 2017 Mid-Term Review Meeting, MTR to measure the impact that NSHIP has over the life span of the project which took place at Nigeria Air force Base Conference Centre and Suite in Abuja.
The MTR is being coordinated by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA under the leadership of the Executive Director, Dr. Faisal Shuaibu and the National Project Coordinator, Hajiya Binta Isma’il, given the role of providing technical support for project implementation ensure NSHIP achieve its objectives in identifying and describe the successes, challenges and critical issues in the design and implementation over the past four years.
Professor Adewole while declaring the meeting open, urged other state governors to emulate the tremendous innovations of the health sector in Adamawa, Nassarawa, Ondo which were the three pilot states and by extension the Five AF-North East states key into the NSHIP, rather than depending on Development Partners.
His words: ” I want to commend the World Bank and the Federal Government implementing NSHIP which is a strictly on Performance Based Financing (PBF) approach which has improved Healthcare service in the project states of Adamawa, Nassarawa and Ondo. I am also delighted to see that the AF-NSHIP, which is a flashy project in other North East States of Borno, Taraba, Bauchi, Yobe among others have started to yield positive results in their health sector.
“It is my hope and believe that very soon, I will drive the Executive Director NPHCDA to the Nigeria Governors Forum to key into this Project, as it will enhance transparency of resources, strengthen accountability at the Primary and Secondary level through qualitative and quantitative Health System in Nigeria and ensure effective participation of communities at the grassroots”. The Minister said.
Earlier in his opening remarks, the Executive Director NPHCDA, Dr. Shuaibu recalled that the traditional input financing in Nigeria has translated into very slow progress in the improvement of Health indices with little advances in service delivery and no increase in accountability of providers and users, but with adoption of NSHIP with support from World Bank, there is increasing evidence of positive impact of PBF on health system performance, provider behaviour and quality of care with improve safe delivery and reduction of maternal mortality.
He noted that the NSHIP through the PBF approach has helped to address most of the bottlenecks bedevilling the health sector of the participating states, as there is significant improvement in the 52 Local Government Areas of 3/pre -pilot states and by extension five AF-NSHIP states in the north east.
He stressed that statistical evidences have shown that the usage of main maternal and Child health services had a steady increase, adding that, percentage of target outpatients reached have also increased from 40.0% to 82.38%, with proportion of using modern family planning methods and Antenatal services doubled from 2015 to date, while there was also 7.15% increase in the targeted number of deliveries to 60.36% and a 26.6% increase in fully vaccinated children to 100% in the participating states.
In his Goodwill message, Representative of the World Bank Country Director, Dr. Benjamin Loevinson assured that the organization is fully committed to the development of the health sector across Nigeria, and pledged to continue support NSHIP through PBF for the benefit of Health Workers and their Clients in both Public and Private Health Facilities.
The MTR meeting was attended by the Commissioners of Health and Finance from the participating states, including Borno.
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