Immediate past Governor of Ondo state, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, has advised
\npolicy makers across Africa to make healthcare delivery a top priority by
\nemplacing a performance-based mechanism that will see Africa overcoming
\nits health challenges.<\/p>\n
Mimiko gave the hints on Tuesday while delivering a keynote address on
\n\u201cThe Future of Health Engagement with Nigeria\u201d at the ongoing conference
\non Global Health by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies
\n(CSIS), Washington DC, USA where he addressed\u00a0 an audience including U.S.
\ngovernment officials, health policy professionals, academics, and business
\nrepresentatives from across the world.<\/p>\n
He noted that funding for primary healthcare, lack of data and political
\nwill, have been the major impediments to quality healthcare in Africa in
\ngeneral and Nigeria in particular.<\/p>\n
Citing the Ondo state example, the former Governor said the huge and
\nunprecedented result recorded in healthcare during his tenure was made
\npossible by a combination of key factors such as the introduction of the
\nAbiye Safe motherhood project which ensured adequate funding for primary
\nhealthcare in spite of the dwindling resources, free healthcare services
\nfor pregnant women and children under 5, well-structured referral system,
\nrewarding partnership with Traditional Birth Attendants and Faith-Based
\nClinics, good use of data, among others.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I assumed office in 2009, we needed to tackle the deepening social
\ninequality and we found that only 2 percent of the state budget was
\nallocated to health, we changed this and by 2016, we have moved to 14
\npercent.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also gave incentives to healthcare providers and empowered them to be
\nable to take decisions at the facility level to improve on their services.
\nThis has resulted in increase facility utilization and quality healthcare.
\nAnother factor was passing into law a bill called Confidential Enquiry
\ninto Maternal Deaths in Ondo State (CEMDOS) that penalizes anyone who
\nfails to report maternal death in the state and with that we were able to
\nsolve the problem of data. All of these factors resulted in an
\nunprecedented achievement in the health sector that saw us setting the
\nstandard for Africa\u201d Mimiko said.<\/p>\n
While rounding up his speech, the former Governor said Nigeria is the
\ninvestment destination in Africa and urged the international community not
\nto turn its back on the country saying the challenges confronting Nigeria
\nis peculiar to every growing nation.<\/p>\n
According to him: \u201cWe cannot deny the fact that there are challenges in
\nNigeria as it is with every growing nation, but we have also been
\nunder-celebrated in some areas. If you study the Ebola curtailment
\nphenomenon, you would understand Nigeria is a giant waiting to rise”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n