Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano state has said that his government has allocated 13 percent of its 2018 budget was allocated to the health sector a part of deliberate attempts to improve quality health care services.
The government allocated N9.7 billion to the health sector this year for infrastructural development and to promote preventive health care along with curative intervention, in collaboration with development partners.
Governor Ganduje stated this, in a video teleconference for the 2017 health program year, which set out to revise the goals and objectives as well corresponding progress made since the commencement of the government’s tripartite agreement on health, with and Dangote Foundation and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
According to him, “the government aims to strengthen the control of HIV/AIDs and Tuberculosis, Polio eradication, Malaria control, cholera, measles control and other child killer diseases in collaboration with development partners”.
The Governor stated that two Specialist Hospitals at Giginyu and Zoo road has been equipped with modern facilities in 2017, while attention would be focused on procurement of specialized medical equipment and upgrading of primary health centers this year, to enable them cope with the challenge of ensuring a healthy citizenry
He thanked the principal MOU partners as well other development partners working in Kano health sector and implored them to sustain the current tempo of technical support to the State Ministry of Health and its agencies.
In his reaction, Chairman of the Dangote Foundation, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, , commended the state on the progress made so far especially on the continued commitment to the 100 percent funding for routine immunization program.
He said: “The state government should do more regarding community engagement work, in trying to generate demand for immunisation and primary healthcare, and for improved transparency and inclusion of partners/technical working groups in all procurement processes moving”.
Co-Chair, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, stressed the importance of data quality, urging the Ganduje administration “to step up its efforts towards strengthening broader primary health care services”.
He also highlighted that, with the ongoing developments in primary health care Kano, the mortality of under-5 children in is set to reduce in the next few years.
