Health Commissioners Applaud Tinubu’s Reforms as Maternal Mortality Drops by 60%

Health Commissioners Applaud Tinubu’s Reforms as Maternal Mortality Drops by 60%

By Raphael Ekpang

Abuja (Core Reporters) The Chairperson of the Nigerian Health Commissioners Forum, Hon. Oye Banji Filani, has commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his administration’s commitment to healthcare reforms, increased budgetary support and efforts to strengthen human capital development.

Filani, who is also the Ekiti State Commissioner for Health and Human Services, disclosed that Nigeria had recorded a reduction of more than 60 per cent in facility-level maternal mortality, alongside the renovation and upgrading of over 1,500 primary healthcare facilities to Level Two standards across the country.

He made this known while highlighting the progress recorded by state governments at the Joint Annual Review of the health sector in Abuja.

According to him, states have recorded significant improvements in health governance, institutionalisation of reforms, facility-level service delivery, skilled birth attendance and antenatal care.

Filani also disclosed that the number of states conducting quarterly reviews of their annual operational plans had increased by approximately 35 percentage points, a development he said had strengthened monitoring and evaluation of health programmes.

“From a governance perspective, there’s been a lot of good. In terms of facility-level gains, we’re also seeing significant improvements. We have many more facilities who now meet the Level Two criteria,” he said.

He explained that Level Two primary healthcare facilities are equipped with adequate health personnel, staff quarters for healthcare workers providing round-the-clock services and the capacity to deliver quality healthcare to beneficiaries.

However, the commissioner identified inadequate health financing and delayed releases of budgeted funds as major challenges confronting the sector.

He stressed the need for federal and state governments to increase healthcare funding and ensure timely disbursement of allocated resources to sustain ongoing reforms and improve service delivery.

Filani also highlighted the state-to-state peer-learning initiative established in collaboration with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and the Gates Foundation, noting that the platform enables states with outstanding performance in specific areas to share experiences and operational strategies with others.

He cited a recent peer-learning engagement in Kaduna State, where five states studied its last-mile delivery system for healthcare commodities to strengthen supply chain management, reduce stockouts and preserve the quality of medicines delivered to health facilities.

The forum chairperson further acknowledged support from the Federal Government through the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, the World Bank-supported HOPE Project and the Global Fund.

He noted that effective coordination and performance-driven utilisation of resources would accelerate healthcare delivery at the sub-national level.

Filani urged Nigerians, particularly pregnant women, mothers and children, to take advantage of upgraded primary healthcare facilities for antenatal care, safe delivery, immunisation, family planning and treatment of common ailments, including malaria, hypertension and diabetes.

“Between last year and this year, we’ve had additional over 1,500 primary healthcare facilities across the country that have been renovated again to Level Two,” he said.

He expressed optimism that sustained collaboration among federal and state governments, development partners and other stakeholders would further improve healthcare outcomes nationwide.