Only 16% of Zamfara health workers are qualified – Union

The Zamfara State chapter of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN) has said the state is facing inadequacy of health personnel against a supposedly huge number of them.

The state Chairman of the Union, Isiyaku Sabo, who spoke of the paradox, said although health workers in both primary and secondary health facilities in the state were not up to 1300, on the government payroll, “we have over 8,000 health workers receiving the health workers’ implemented salary structure.”

He specified that out of the over 8,000 health workers, only 1,245 personnel have health certificates (translating to 15.56 per cent), “while over 6,000 have not attended any health institution.”

Sabo said some of the motley unqualified health workers were secondary school leavers, while some were NCE and degree holders in disciplines not related to health.

“And a majority of them are redundant and receiving high salaries,” he said, adding that “We have been complaining of these issues to both state and local governments, until now that the state Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs set up a committee to conduct a verification exercise to fish out unqualified health workers.”

The state government itself has admitted that majority of its health worker are unqualified.

The Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Alhaji Muttaka Rini who spoke to newsmen in Gusau, said health workers with fake certificates were discovered in the ongoing rationalisation and verification exercise of health workers of the ministry.

“We have witnessed a lot of irregularities in the payroll of health workers of the ministry, therefore we have to investigate the system… We have not finished the exercise but based on what we have discovered now, there is a great number of workers in our payroll and majority of them are not health workers because they obtained certificates that have no relationship with health care delivery,” he said.