Nigeria committed to attaining universal health coverage - VP Osinbajo

The Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo has stated that the federal government is committed towards attaining the universal health coverage set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for 2030.

He said this on Wednesday, June 23, 2021, during the launch of a Modular Healthcare facility by Alpha Mead Healthcare Management System initiative at the Gbagada General Hospital in Lagos.

Represented by the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari, Princess Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, at the event, noted that the universal health coverage was created to ensure the general public had access to healthcare in the country.

“Alpha Mead Healthcare Management System initiative has appropriately captured the SDGs goal-9 which aims at building resilient infrastructure, promoting industrialisation and fostering innovation across sectors, including health, innovation, infrastructure, new skills technology, and development, which will therefore help drive out SDGs, including SDG-3, to achieve universal health coverage, a global priority to the attachment of 2030 agenda, especially in low and medium income countries.

“It therefore intends to improve the quality, equity and access to healthcare services for all in line with the SDG principle and mantra of ‘leaving no one behind’.

“Nigeria is committed to the attainment of universal health coverage, which is the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, as demonstrated by the president’s launch of the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund on January 8, 2019, to accelerate the attainment of universal health coverage in Nigeria.

“As a country, Nigeria is making unwavering effort through the relevant ministry, department, and agencies (MDAs) of government to improve both geographical and financial access to quality healthcare services through aggressive healthcare infrastructure, development, and expansion horizontally and vertically," he said.

Adding that, “The Alpha Mead Healthcare and Management Services Mobile Healthcare facilities have the potential to support the government efforts towards transforming medical diagnostics and reducing barrier to healthcare access in Nigeria.”

In a publication cited on today.ng, Group Chairman of Alpha Mead Group, Mutiu Sunmonu, on his part said the idea of the MHF was to aggressively drive the penetration of healthcare facilities in Nigeria by “reducing the construction timeline of a healthcare facility to less than 30 days, saving the time lost in design, construction, equipment installation and launching of regular brick and mortar healthcare facilities.”

He, therefore, added that the Nigerian health sector needed an intervention “and we are happy to be leading this innovation, particularly at a time like this.

“For us, the MHF is more than a just a healthcare facility; it is also an entrepreneurial package capable of serving both social and economic purposes by creating jobs and business opportunities for Small and Medium Scale Enterprise, professional healthcare workers, as well as support staff.”