WHO Charges State Govts to Pay Counterpart Funds

Laleye Dipo in Minna

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has charged state governments across Nigeria to pay their counterpart funds in order to benefit from the global organisations support for health infrastructure.

WHO Representative in the country, Mr. Galadima, who stated this in Minna, Niger State, last Tuesday at the continuation of the deworming of children in the state capital, said failure to pay the counterpart funds by the state governments was hindering the development of the health sector across the country.

Galadima noted that there was no way WHO would release its own part of the fund if the state governments failed to honour their own part of the bargain, insisting that “that is the memorandum of understanding (MoU) we entered into with state governments.”

The WHO representative, however, said the organisation was committed to supporting the states to improve the health status of their people.

The Regional Sales Manager (North) of Biomedical Nigeria Limited, which is partnering the Niger State Government on the deworming programme, Mr. Adams Abdullahi Danjuma, disclosed that not less than 450 children of between two and five years as well as pregnant women are to be dewormed throughout the country  during the exercise.

Danjuma also disclosed that the firm would donate some consumables to the government for distribution to families across the states.

The firm, he said, had carried out similar deworming exercise in Kwara and Oyo States as well as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), adding that the objective is to improve the lives of the people, especially children and pregnant women.

Wife of the state governor, Dr. Amina Sani Bello, flagged off the deworming campaign last Monday during which she solicited for the cooperation of major stakeholders in the state for the success of the programme.

Bello gave an assurance that the state government would continue to sustain all its health care services programmes by partnering reputable organisations to bring health care delivery services to the door steps of the average person in the state.

She also emphasised on the need for women to take advantage of the free services of the ‘Safe Motherhood and Vaccination’ programme being provided by the government.