Federal Government’s direct investment in Primary Health Care (PHC) is expected to save poor Nigerian households from paying N643 billion a year, according to United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report.
Abubakar Kampo, UNICEF chief of health, gave the hint while presenting a paper on: ‘Going back to primary health care: One PHC per ward,’ at the inaugural meeting of the House Committees on Health Institutions, chaired by Betty Apiafi.
Kampo, who was accompanied by Jean Gough, UNICEF country representatives in Nigeria, emphasised the importance of PHC towards the realisation of the objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aimed at delivering free health care to majority of Nigerians.
“Federal Government direct investment in PHC will save poor households from paying N643 billion during year 1 for PHC services. The savings will translate into about N49,000 in the pocket of households per year for meeting other household costs.
“About 488,000 jobs will be created and pharmaceutical industry involvement in PHC will boost the economy, an additional N158 billion annually.
“Capital and maintenance costs for PHC alone of N130 billion annually, an opportunity for private sector involvement, which is good for wealth and employment creation,” Kampo said.
The UNICEF official, who applauded the successes recorded in the health sector under Olikoye Ramsome Kuti, a former minister of health, noted, “every ward in the country will be represented by having in place a well established PHC centre, unlike current situation when many wards don’t have such facilities.”
He assured that the provision of free health services in many states through the PHCs would increase access to quality services and impact positively on the poor, vulnerable and marginalised populations, women and children, as 80 percent of all diseases can be treated at the PHC level.
According to Kampo, a diligent implementation of the PHC has “potential to save over 900,000 additional lives of children under the age of five by year five of implementation.
“We will save more than 25,000 maternal deaths during first five years and over 60,000 by 2025,” he said.
Speaking earlier, Betty Apiafi, chairman of the Committee on Health Institutions, said there was a need to strengthen the primary and secondary health institutions to relieve the pressure on the tertiary health institutions in the country.
