Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has taken a significant step towards improving healthcare services across Nigeria by approving the establishment of the National Health Fellows Programme.
This initiative aims to comprehensively upgrade existing primary healthcare centers and construct over 8,800 new facilities in all 774 local government areas of the country.
The announcement was made by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, in a statement on Monday.
Ngelale emphasized that the program is part of Tinubu’s determination to ensure accessible and qualitative healthcare delivery, coupled with the provision of new social accountability mechanisms.
“In his determination to comprehensively upgrade existing primary Health care centers and construct over 8,000 new primary Health care centers across all local government areas in the country for accessible and qualitative Health care delivery with the provision of new social accountability mechanisms president has approved the establishment of the National Health fellows program with young Nigerian fellows to be engaged in all the 774 local government areas in the country,” he said in a statement.
Under the National Health Fellows Programme, young Nigerian fellows will be engaged in every local government area to serve as fiduciary agents. These well-trained fellows will be tasked with monitoring and tracking the development and performance of Primary Healthcare Centers (PHCs) across the nation.
Their work will be meticulously measured against all financial inflows to the healthcare centers, ensuring transparency and accountability in the utilization of resources.
The fellowship program will be domiciled in the Sector Wide Approach (SWAp) coordination office under the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.
The fellows will be recruited, remunerated, and equipped with appropriate tools to track the performance of Basic Health Care Provision Fund-supported health facilities nationwide.
