Kebbi Committed To Improving Health Indices Of Women, Children
The Executive Secretary, Kebbi State Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Abubakar Kaoje, says the state government is committed to improving maternal, newborn and child health indices in the state.
Kaoje said in Birnin Kebbi on Saturday, that the state government would continue to adopt best practices to meet the health and nutritional needs of women and children across the state.
According to him, the Kebbi State Government is doing the best it can in terms of providing the needed financial resources to improve services in health facilities, particularly in rural areas.
“We have a lot of technical and financial support from the European Union, UNICEF, World Health Organisation (WHO), United States Agency for Internal Development and National Primary Health Care Development Agency.
“Others are Saving One Million Lives Programme for Result and other relevant stakeholders, who have been supporting us to provide the needed health services for our women and children.
“The various interventions by the development partners are helping to reverse the disturbing indices that bother on quality healthcare services, immunisation, antenatal and postnatal care, nutrition, HIV and neonatal care among others,” he said.
The Executive Secretary said that pregnant women in the state were being given N14,000 as an encouragement to attend antenatal care, deliver in the hospital, immunize and provide adequate nutrition to their children after delivery.
He explained that the gesture was under the state’s social protection programme design, to provide the needed support for families to provide proper care for their children.
“As expected, these among several other interventions have significantly improved immunisation coverage, ante-natal and postal natal care attendance, positive behavioural changes on infant and young child feeding and child protection issues among others.
“This is greatly changing the health and nutrition indices of our women and children with an impressive decline in maternal, infant and child mortality due to improved access to health care,” he added. The Secretary stressed that the state government has been providing the needed counterpart funding for various intervention by development partners and would continue to do so to sustain such interventions.
“This is because the government is interested in the health care of the people, as our women and children health indices are not where they ought to be,” Kaoje said.
