VP Osinbajo pushes for  Synergy with Private Sector To Reform Health Sector

Nigeria’s Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo says there is a great need for synergy between government at all levels and the private sector, to further improve access to healthcare services, especially for the vulnerable population and general development of primary healthcare system.
Professor Osinbajo stated this on Thursday in Abuja at the National Primary Health Care Summit organised by the Federal Ministry of Health and the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), which held at the International Conference Centre.

He said; “There is no way that healthcare funding can be paid for by government budgets alone.”
Professor Osinbajo stated that there was an urgent need for collaboration between governments at all levels to address some of the drawbacks occasioned by the concurrent constitutional status of primary healthcare.

Highlighting ways to reform and re-imagine the health sector, the VP who is the chairman of the Health sector Reform Committee set up by the President, restated the importance of a compulsory health insurance scheme, especially one where “premiums for certain categories of vulnerable groups are paid by the government.”
“As the Minister of Finance has said, the target is 100% coverage for the poor and vulnerable in the short to medium term.

“Aside from funds, what the private sector should bring to the task are models of efficiency and cost-saving market-driven ideas,” the Vice President noted.
He called for more interventions from the private sector to support government efforts in this regard, saying repositioning Nigeria’s healthcare sector to address major health indices remained a critical component of the President Buhari Administration’s development agenda.
In January 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the Health Care Reform Committee, which is chaired by the Vice President.
Recalling the mandate of the Committee, the VP stated that “the primary objective is to reengineer our healthcare delivery system such that it becomes, in the President’s words, people-centric, modern and virile; a healthcare system that addresses the depressing health indices frontally.

The VP listed other government’s responses towards improving healthcare such as the “Basic Healthcare Fund seeking to address the cost of healthcare for the poor, Nigeria’s Covid-19 response measures, including the health sector component of the Economic Sustainability Plan, the establishment of Healthcare Sector Intervention Fund Facility which has already disbursed almost N80 billion to finance the acquisition and installation of critical medical equipment and the expansion of production lines in some pharmaceutical companies.”
Professor Osinbajo commended the Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire for his commitment towards advancing healthcare causes in the country.
He also acknowledged the efforts of the Minister of State for Health, Dr. Olorunimbe Mamora, as well as the Executive Director/CEO of NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, and his team.