Yobe receives $29m grant for health programme
Gov. Ibrahim Gaidam has assured that his administration will continue to do more to improve the health sector and make quality, affordable care available to the people. He spoke yesterday when he was presented with a cheque of 29 million dollars by the Commissioner of Health, Dr. Muhammad Bello Kawuwa, being a grant allocated by the federal government to advance work on ‘Saving One Million Lives’.
Dr. Kawuwa explained that the cheque was originally presented to Deputy Governor Engr. Abubakar D. Ali by the Minister of National Planning Dr. Udo Udoma in a ceremony in Abuja last week as a reward to the state for its excellent performance in the ‘Saving One Million Lives’ programme of the federal government.
Dr. Kawuwa explained that in 2016, the federal government secured a N500 million loan from the World Bank and advanced the money to the 36 states as a grant. “The FG identified six key health indicators and made them the disbursement link to the states. At the end of 2016, all the states got a take-off grant of $1.5 million each. We developed a workplan which the Federal Ministry of Health and partners and the Yobe State government approved. That seed money was used to develop those six indicators, all of them revolving around maternal and child health.
“After one year, those six indicators were assessed. Following the assessment, Yobe State got additional 7.5 million USD to carry on with implementation and this is the current workplan being implemented right now.
Gaidam expressed appreciation to the health commissioner and his team for their efforts.