By Emmanuel Abi Couson
For the second year in a row, Rivers State has won the coveted prize as the Best Performing State in the South-South Region in the Primary Healthcare Leadership Challenge, emerging as the South South Champion and National runner up, beating the pack.
This was announced in an event organized by the Nigeria Governors Forum and supported by UNICEF, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Aliko Dangote Foundation, Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and National Primary Healthcare Development Agency on Thursday night.
At the awards and gala night ceremony, which held at the State House Banquet Hall, Rivers State won a $500,000 award for being the best from the South South region and the second best in the country, demonstrating consistent hard work from the health teams in the State despite apparent challenges.
Her Excellency, Deputy Governor, Prof. Ngozi Nma Odu, who represented the Governor and led the state delegation to receive the award, praised the organisers through their Independent Verification Teams and Independent Judging Panel for their objective evaluation and assessesment of the performance of the State in the comity of states in the Federation.
Recall that the Primary Health Care (PHC) Leadership Challenge is a flagship programme of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF).
It builds on the Seattle Declaration agreement for stronger sub-national leadership for primary healthcare in Nigeria, and aims to revitalize the Primary Health Care Under One Roof (PHCUOR) policy in Nigeria by galvanising stronger commitment of state governors to promoting a progressive increase in PHC funding.
This is geared towards ensuring improved infrastructure in all primary healthcare centres with strengthened human resource capacity.
The Governor said, “This award and national recognition will undoubtedly enable us double down on existing efforts to strengthen the quality and expand the reach of primary healthcare in Rivers State in alignment with our #Health4AllRivers Strategy towards Universal Health Coverage.
“Exactly one year ago, I was opportuned to stand alongside the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum and my brother state governors to sign the Presidential Compact for Nigeria’s health sector renewal.
“This award and recognition clearly demonstrate our commitment to that compact as a commitment to providing quality helthcare services and the improvement of the health of not just the people of Rivers State, but the nation at large”, he added.
In her remark, the State Commissioner for Health, Dr Adaeze Oreh, expressed gratitude to Governor Siminalayi Fubara for providing the enabling environment and support for the ministry to perform, saying that with the people-centred policy focus of the administration, the health sector in the State will be transformed to deliver affordable and accessible healthcare services to all strata of society in the shortest possible time.
