Charity Nwakaudu, Abuja
World Health Organisation (WHO), on Monday, began its five days training for some Nigerians and 80 other delegates from 44 countries on Value For Money (VFM), for African Region.
VFM in the health sector is about maximising the impact of resources spent to improve standard of living. It also prioritises interventions to derive maximum benefit from the available scarce resources.
Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Health, Abdullahi Mashi, who declared the workshop open, in Abuja, added that the aim of the workshop was to support the roll out of VFM implementation in the African region which is very important at this moment of achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
Mashi who was represented by the Director, health planning research and statistics, Emmanuel Meribole, told the delegates that Nigeria is currently implementing a number of health financing reforms that would redefine and shape the trajectory of our UHC aspirations and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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He added: “Nigerian government is currently investing additional domestic resources amounting to over $180 million annually, in addition to budgetary allocation to health. And the aim is to aggressively improve on current health indices as well as ensure a sustainable and efficient financing for health.
“The funds would be used to purchase a basic healthcare package for the benefit of Nigerians. It was also intended to be used as strategic instrument to reduce out of pocket health expenditure which was estimated at 76.6 percent of total health expenditure as at the 2017 National Health Accounts study.”
He encouraged the delegates to learn, share and consolidate on new learning and existing knowledge base.
WHO Regional Director, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, who spoke through the Acting Officer in Charge of Nigeria, Dr. Clement Peter, appreciated the government for the conducive environment and urged the participants to make use of the opportunity to increase their knowledge.