For the first time in several years, the National Assembly is pushing to raise 2017 health budget to N1.094 trillion in adherence to the 2001 Abuja Declaration, which recommends a minimum 15 percent of total annual budgets be dedicated to health sector.
Ebonyi State government yesterday said it was targeting a total of 557,000 children, 139,000 pregnant women and 613, 000 women of child bearing age for the state’s immunization exercise.
The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Daniel Umezuruike stated this at Ugbodo, the headquarters of Ebonyi local government area of Ebonyi State during the flag-off of second round of maternal/ newborn child health week in the state.
Recent survey by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) indicates that malnutrition accounts for the death of 2,300 Nigerian children daily.
It also notes that more than 2.5 million children under the age of five are suffering from severe acute malnutrition and are likely to die if adequate funding is not provided to treat them.
The Senate on Tuesday said that the expenditure of over $1 billion (about N305.250 billion) annually for medical treatment abroad was unacceptable.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Senator Lanre Tejuosho, who stated this at a press conference in Abuja said that the Senate was working assiduously to turn the country’s health sector around for the benefit of Nigerian.
Founder-President of The Wellbeing Foundation Africa, Toyin Saraki has revealed that about 20 million Nigerian women have experienced Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
Mrs Saraki made the disclosure in commemoration of the United Nation’s International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation on February 6.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Health, Lanre Tejuosho, has decried budgetary allocation to health sector, saying it was disproportionate in comparison to its mandate.
He said that the ministry’s allocation had continued to “show no break in gloomy pattern over the years”.
Mr. Tejuosho stated this on Wednesday at a news briefing in Abuja and said that “in the 2017 Capital Budget of N2.24 trillion, the health sector was allocated N51 billion (representing 2.78per cent).”
Nigeria has inaugurated the technical and steering committees to drive the process of improving quality healthcare for mothers, newborn and children.
The Minister of State for Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, inaugurated the steering and technical committees in Abuja.
The inauguration of the committees was in direct response for the admission of Nigeria into the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) network on quality healthcare for mothers, newborns and children.
The UN Fund for Population Activities, UNFPA, says Nigeria and The Gambia are among the countries that have outlawed the harmful practice of female genital mutilation.
The UNFPA, in a report on the of 2017 International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, commemorated on February 6, stressed the urgent need to abandon the practice.
Sokoto state government may introduce family planning packages to the female intending pilgrims because of the suffering pregnant women go through during Hajj exercise.
Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal disclosed this at the inauguration of the newly elected officials of the Medical Women Association of Nigeria, Sokoto state branch.
Tambuwal who was represented by the Commissioner of Health, Dr. Balarabe Kakale said this was to allow women perform the religious rites while in the holy Land without any hitch.
Founder-President of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, Mrs Toyin Saraki has said that Nigeria is in the midst of a national health crisis.
Mrs Saraki, who is the Chair of Nigeria's Primary Healthcare Revitalization Support Group, however added that the solution to the crisis is within the nation’s grasp.
