THISDAY

FCTA Requires $22bn for Public Health Care Funding Gap

- Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The Federal Capital Territory Administra­tion said it would require $22 billion to close the Primary Health Care (PHC) funding gap in the territory of which the USAID has supported with N14 billion.

The Secretary, Health and Human Services Secretaria­t Dr. Abubakar Tafida made the disclosure while briefing the press.

He said it had become necessary to bridge the funding gap given that over six million FCT residents are currently being catered for by health facilities originally targeted to serve between 1.5 million to two million people.

To this end, he noted that the HHSS in collaborat­ion with internatio­nal partners came up with a system where philanthro­pists and spirited individual­s can help to revitalise PHC through their moral support.

Tafida said the secretaria­t was currently developing new structures in Primary Health Care centres all in an effort to ensure that services provided are standard.

“It is not that FCTA is not doing their best, they have revitalise­d about 83% of the Primary Health Care, we have 154 functional PHC in FCT with at least 83 in minimum operations. They procured $ 2.4 million drugs and consumable­s were provided to us. There has been a lot of interventi­ons in FCT, there has been the Basic Healthcare Province Fund component. This means one ward one PHC and we have 62 wards in the six Area Council

“We are soliciting support from various organisati­ons and internatio­nal partners and individual­s to come and look at the status of the PHC and revitalise them, we are not asking for money.

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