Immediate
past governor of Ondo State, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, has advised policy makers
across Africa to make healthcare delivery a top priority by emplacing a
performance-based mechanism that will see Africa overcoming its health
challenges.
Mimiko
gave the hints on Tuesday while delivering a keynote address on “The Future of
Health Engagement with Nigeria” at the ongoing conference on Global Health by
the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Washington DC,
United States of America where he addressed an audience including US
government officials, health policy professionals, academics, and business
representatives from across the world.
He
noted that funding for primary healthcare, lack of data and political will, has
been the major impediments to quality healthcare in Africa in general and
Nigeria in particular.
Citing
the Ondo State example, the former Governor disclosed that the huge and
unprecedented result recorded in healthcare during his tenure was made possible
by a combination of key factors such as the introduction of the Abiye Safe motherhood project, which ensured
adequate funding for primary healthcare in spite of the dwindling resources,
free healthcare services for pregnant women and children under 5,
well-structured referral system, rewarding partnership with Traditional Birth
Attendants and Faith-Based Clinics, good use of data, among others.
“When
I assumed office in 2009, we needed to tackle the deepening social inequality
and we found that only 2 percent of the state budget was allocated to health,
we changed this and by 2016, we have moved to 14 per cent.
“We
also gave incentives to healthcare providers and empowered them to be able to
take decisions at the facility level to improve on their services. This has
resulted in increased facility utilisation and quality healthcare.
“Another
factor was passing into law a bill called Confidential Enquiry into Maternal
Deaths in Ondo State (CEMDOS) that penalises anyone who fails to report
maternal death in the state and with that we were able to solve the problem of
data. All of these factors resulted in an unprecedented
achievement in the
health sector that saw us setting the standard for Africa,” Mimiko said.
While
rounding up his speech, the former governor said Nigeria is the investment
destination in Africa and urged the international community not to turn its
back on the country saying the challenges confronting Nigeria is peculiar to
every growing nation.
According
to him: “We cannot deny the fact that there are challenges in Nigeria as it is
with every growing nation, but we have also been under-celebrated in some
areas; If you study the Ebola curtailment phenomenon, you would understand
Nigeria is a giant waiting to rise.”
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