Achieving Universal Health Coverage Coverage in Nigeria

How do we ensure over 200 million Nigeria are protected and have access to quality health care? Just this morning on radio the UNICEF country representative during a radio program mentioned that only 7% of health facilities have access to water in Nigeria.

There are several problems in the health care that requires investment in terms of quality improvement, accessibility and conducive environment especially for the rural communities and hard-to-reach areas.

The idea of having one Primary Health Centre per ward is still very far from reality in Nigeria and most of the existing facilities are not equipped to care for the community due to lack of political will and several other factors.

The pandemic has also exposed the poor state of our health care systems from the PHC level to the THC level, the critical part of the SDGs is about leaving no one behind and that means health care is a fundamental human right of all Nigeria.

This year I was privileged to have joined two research survey team, first on Effect of Covid-19 on Maternal Newborn and Child Health Services and Family planning uptake in rural and urban communities of Lagos: implications for fertility and maternal health. During the period of the survey I interacted with over 300 hundred families in the community and also at 5 different health care facilities.

One of the eye openers for me during the visit to one of the family planning clinics was the level of dedication of staff in educating the patient about family planning but they are always discouraged about the none availability of equipment and resources to do their job effectively.

Some of families I spoke with also gave positive feedbacks on what they felt the government should do to improve the services at the health facilities.

Government need to be encouraged, be deliberate about strengthening the health care system through her private sector collaboration and international partners invest in health care heavily, human resources and quality of services and infrastructure.

While I was working on an intervention in Lagos State in charge of monitoring 100 PHCs, I believe seeing the community members as a major stakeholder in health care system strengthening will be one of the most important option that the government need prioritize, the idea of strengthening the Ward Health Committee and building their capacity in order to be the link between the community and the Health Care Work is key rather than see them as a political tool for politicians.

The heart of achieving and localizing the SDGs from the bottom to top starts with the local government been equipped with the knowledge about the implementation of the SDGs.

The recognition of local government as key actors for sustainable development enables them to claim for better political and economic frameworks at national level which can further help them to mobilize domestic and international financial resources for local sustainable development, especially the health sector while they continue to adapt, implement and monitor the various health care delivery frameworks from the local to national level for the good health and wellbeing for all.

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