The federal authorities has reaffirmed its dedication to attaining Universal Health Coverage (UHC) by 2030, stressing the necessity for stronger coordination, accountability and equitable entry to high quality healthcare providers.
The Director of Health Planning, Research and Statistics on the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Mrs Adijah Elijah, acknowledged this in Abuja yesterday on the Health Equity Conference 2026, organised by OneBarrow International Limited.
Speaking on the theme: “Care Coordination as the Core Engine of Health Equity,” Elijah stated attaining well being fairness required stakeholders to maneuver past coverage formulation to efficient implementation with measurable outcomes.
She outlined well being fairness as making certain that everybody had a good alternative to realize the best attainable stage of well being, regardless of earnings, geographical location, gender, incapacity or social standing.
According to her, Universal Health Coverage implies that everybody can entry the standard well being providers they want with out struggling monetary hardship.
Elijah stated the federal authorities’s well being sector reform agenda, together with the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative and the Sector-Wide Approach, supplied a framework for bettering coordination, aligning investments and strengthening accountability throughout the well being sector.
She famous that sustainable enhancements in well being outcomes couldn’t be achieved by way of remoted programmes, however required a coordinated nationwide response involving authorities establishments, improvement companions, healthcare suppliers, communities and different stakeholders.
The director urged individuals to translate their commitments into sensible actions that might enhance healthcare supply and make sure that authorities insurance policies benefited the individuals they have been designed to serve.
“As representatives of presidency, improvement companions, regulatory our bodies, civil society and the personal sector, we should go away this convention with renewed dedication to show our collective commitments into sensible and measurable outcomes.
“Let us ensure our policies reach the people they are designed for,” she stated.
Elijah counseled the organisers for bringing collectively policymakers, healthcare practitioners, researchers, improvement companions and different stakeholders to discover methods of translating well being insurance policies into tangible enhancements in individuals’s lives.
Earlier, the Founder of OneBarrow International Limited, Nigeria, Yemi Ajao, stated poor well being continued to undermine the productive potential of people, households, companies and communities.
He stated the implications of sickness prolonged past affected people, as kids may lose studying alternatives, mother and father could possibly be unable to earn a residing, and professionals could possibly be prevented from working.
“Families carry the burden. Employers really feel the loss. Communities lose alternatives.
“And when people repeatedly struggle to receive care, their confidence in the system suffers,” Ajao stated.
He additionally expressed concern over the variety of Nigerians looking for alternatives in international locations the place healthcare and different public programs perform extra reliably, stressing that Nigerians within the diaspora remained related to their dwelling nation.
According to him, bettering Nigeria’s healthcare system was a shared duty that required the dedication of residents and stakeholders.
“Home is home. And our pride in home must give us the courage to improve it,” he stated.
Ajao additional referred to as for a patient-centred strategy to healthcare supply, arguing that the system must be organised round sufferers’ wants fairly than treating healthcare as a set of separate skilled duties and institutional departments.
He defined {that a} affected person’s journey may contain group healthcare suppliers, hospitals, laboratories, pharmacies, specialists, medical health insurance suppliers and emergency transport providers.
He stated efficient coordination was obligatory to make sure that data, duty and clear steering on the subsequent steps adopted sufferers all through their healthcare journey.
“When those connections fail, the patient and family are often left to coordinate the system themselves,” Ajao stated.
