Nigeria’s President has launched a second National Strategic Health Development Plan from 2018-2022 to attain Universal Health Coverage as he unveiled the first phase of the N55 billion Basic Health Care Provision Fund in six states of the federation, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
President Buhari said the brand name for the project is “Huwe” meaning life, stressing that government would provide quality affordable healthcare to citizens adding that the provision would be devoid of financial hardship to provide succour to the poor and improve the health indices of the country.
Also speaking, Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole, confirmed contributions to the Huwe account currently as N537m ($1.5m) from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation amongst others.
Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote lending credence to the initiative also promised to mobilise ₦2 Billion from the private sector to support the healthcare fund.
The President emphasized that a very strict accountability and transparency mechanism has been put in place to ensure that there is no corruption in the disbursement of the fund.