Tinubu engages youths to boost health in 774 councils

PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has approved the establishment of National Health Fellows Programme, with young Nigerians, to be engaged in all the 774 local government areas in the country.

This, according to Tinubu, is in furtherance of his determination to upgrade existing primary healthcare centres and construct over 8,800 new primary healthcare centres across local government areas in the country for accessible healthcare delivery with the provision of new social accountability mechanisms.

He explained that the welltrained fellows will serve as fiduciary agents to monitor and track Primary Healthcare Centre development and performance, which is to be measured against all financial inflows to the centres nationwide.

Tinubu, in a statement issued by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, yesterday, explained that the fellowship programme would be domiciled in the Sector Wide Approach ( SWA) coordination office under the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.

He said: “The fellows will be recruited, renumerated, and equipped with appropriate tools to track the performance of Basic Health Care Provision Fund- supported health facilities across the nation.”

Tinubu, who is the African Union Champion for Human Resources in Healthcare, places faith in young Nigerians, and expects that their engagement in the critical nationbuilding task, which also includes a daily monitoring and tracking of health reforms in their locations, will usher in a new era of world- class service provision to all Nigerians in every part of the country.