President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote has praised the Ganduje administration for working towards improving health system strengthening and community engagement towards the success of routine immunization.
He specifically commended the improvement the government has recorded in terms of data quality and encouraged its health team to work towards the development of a robust data quality improvement plan before the end of the year. This, he maintained should be targeted towards reducing the discrepancy between administrative and survey data for all key health indices.
According to a statement by the Director General, Media and Publicity, Ameen Yassir, Dangote made the remark during the 2019 End of Year Health System Strengthening Program Review Meeting, held via Skype, at Africa House, Government House, Kano.
He said: “Kano has made a lot of deliberate efforts to ensure community engagement gains from Polio, RI etc. are maintained, as we transition to integrated PHC service delivery across the whole state; It is therefore good to hear community linkage strengthening being highlighted as area to prioritize during the last PHC summit”.
“On the financing and financial management, it is good that the state has sustained its record of timely retirement of funds in the health systems strengthening program but would like to encourage the team to review the current approach to monitor timely implementation of work plan and utilisation of program funds for impact”, he added.
“I will not relent but continue to talk about program data. I therefore, will like to encourage Kano to develop and implement data quality improvement plan at all health facilities that connects to LGA, Zone, and State mentoring plans; and also be sure that the plans don’t only address capacity gaps, but also work to improve behaviors around data inflation”, Alh. Dangote stressed.
In a message to the meeting, Mr. Bill Gates, represented by Dr. Dr. Chris Elias, President Global Development Fund congratulated Gov. Ganduje for remaining on track for a robust health program since the tripartite partnership between the state government, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Dangote Foundation took effect in 2012.
“This is a highlight of political commitment. It is remarkable to see the success made in the successful implementation of the Seattle resolutions agreed back in November, 2019 with particular reference to the commitment by His Excellency to complete transfer of salaries of Primary Health Care staff to the State Primary health Care Management Board by March, 2020”, he stated.
“Other areas we noted success and worth commending include a more realistic costing of the minimum service package which will help fast track implementation of Primary Health Care Under One Roof (PHCUOR) components”, Mr. Gates noted.
He added:”I am quite happy to note the good work around the 2-way referral linkages; so great to hear about the increased number of successful 2-way referrals from primary health facilities to secondary health facilities from 26 complete referrals during the pilot stage in Q1 2019 to 1,225 in Q4 2019”.
“Great to hear the continuous efforts to finish the Polio work especially with timely disbursements of counterpart funds for SIA campaigns but more needs to be done at this critical time particularly with the attendance of the LGA chairmen at the evening review meetings. These activities are very critical to success as we aim towards having Nigeria certified polio free”, he asserted.
On his part, Gov. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje promised that the state government would do its best to identify and fill the gaps that were brought to fore during the meeting.
He promised that the state would “scale up existing referrals network service between primary health centers to secondary health centers and would implement resolutions of the 2020 Primary Heath Care Summit with emphasis on rationalization of the minimum service package investment plan”.
Others who spoke during the meeting include the Minster of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, The Executive Secretary, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Faisal Shu’aib and the Emir of Bichi, Alh. Aminu Ado Bayero.
