The Federal Ministry of Health is set to engage 200,000 agents under its Community Health Influencers, Promoters and Services (CHIPS) Programme nationwide.
President Muhammadu Buhari had in his visit to Nasarawa on Tuesday directed the ministry to “synergise with other states to roll out the programme to enable the less-privileged and the rural dwellers to have access to health services.”
CHIPS, developed by the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, aims to link health work force to rural and underserved communities in hopes of bridging gaps in access to health care.
Speaking on the development, NPHCDA executive director, Faisal Shuaib, said the CHIPS agents will go from house to house to provide first aid care and health education.
According to him, those selected from communities will stimulate residents to seek care in primary health centres closest to them.
“They will play roles of effective demand generation and health behaviour change communication, provide basic emergency services to households, support community surveillance, collect and transmit household level health-related information on a regular basis and so much more,” Shuaib said.
He added that 200,000 agents working under the programme across the country will be the “largest aggregation of community health workers in Africa”.
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