How NLTF Revitalised 40 Healthcare Facilities in Two Years

By Muhammad Auwal

With the growing need to strengthen public health systems at the local government level to ensure effective community medical practice and access to quality healthcare service delivery across Nigeria, the National Lottery Trust Fund (NLTF) has been delivering on its mandate as the Federal Government agency saddled with the responsibility of utilising a certain percentage of the proceeds to the execution of good causes projects across the country for the benefit and well-being of Nigerians.

Indeed, NLTF has been working round the clock to promote all-inclusive healthcare coverage through procurement and donating world-class health equipment to primary and tertiary health facilities, funded through proceeds from the agency since 2018.

This pragmatic move by NLTF, with Dr Bello Maigari, the Executive Secretary/CEO, at the helm of affairs, is a significant milestone in the history of the lottery in Nigeria. It especially comes when public health experts seek strengthened health systems to help citizens attain their maximum health potential.

The policy thrust of the Fund’s all-inclusive healthcare coverage is to carry out intervention programmes in health institutions across the country to help promote proper and effective diagnosis of critical diseases and ailments.

It seeks to support the current administration’s core objectives to improve security, achieve economic diversification, fight corruption, and build a buoyant economy that supports inclusive growth and creates broad-based prosperity for every Nigerian. There has been a reduction in the number of referrals and travels by patients seeking proper diagnosis and treatments.

To ameliorate the suffering of the locals resulting from the wrong diagnosis through faulty or malfunctioning equipment and prevent mortality resulting from wrong prescriptions and wrong diagnosis, as well as address the problem of inadequacy and poor organisation of health services at the local government level.

The agency focuses on promoting access to proper and accurate diagnosis of ailments to facilitate correct and appropriate treatment. Hence, the following medical equipment was procured and donated to health institutions from 2018 to date to help promote all-inclusive healthcare coverage across Nigeria.

The medical equipment and health supplies include well-equipped ambulances, digital ultrasound machines, digital X-ray machines, anaesthetics machines, hydraulic operation tables, wheelchairs, screens, suction machines, BP apparatus, and stools with castors. Others are blood bank, hematocrit centrifuge and sponge, holding forceps, standard first aid boxes and accessories, patient blankets, bed sheets, MVA kits, dental examination head heights, dental aprons, portable bone drilling machines, soft surgical wire, tongue and check detractor, hospital beds and mattresses, blood bank refrigerators, oxygen concentrators and G/C liquid and powder.

The agency provided an ultrasound and digital X-ray machine to Aisha Muhammadu Buhari General Hospital, Jega, Kebbi State, and standard first aid boxes and accessories to select public secondary schools throughout the country, including the Federal Capital Territory.

The General Hospital Toro in Bauchi received anaesthetic machines, a hydraulic operation table, wheelchairs, a screen, a suction machine, a BP apparatus, a stool with a castor, a blood bank, a haematocrit gentrifuge, and sponge-holding forceps.

While ultrasound, X-ray machines and autoclave equipment in General Hospital, Umezeoke, Ezza North LGA, Ebonyi, and another set of ultrasounds, X-ray machines, and vital medical equipment were presented to the Comprehensive Primary Health Centre, Okundi-Boki, in Cross River. Through its intervention, the agency provided ultrasound, X-ray machines and an autoclave to the General Hospital Daura, Katsina.

The NLTF also funded the procurement of medical equipment for seven healthcare facilities in 2019. The facilities are General Hospital Hong, Adamawa, Federal Medical Centre, Yola, Federal Teaching Hospital, Gombe Primary Healthcare Centre Ijeru Oba-Ogbomoso, Oyo Primary Healthcare Centre, Iresapa Ogbomoso, Specialist Hospital, Gombe Primary Healthcare Clinic, and New-Karu Nasarawa.

Equally, the NLTF funded the building, furnishing, and equipping of an ultramodern mortuary complex at the General Hospital, Hong, in Adamawa State in 2019 and the Katsina State COVID-19 ICU Treatment Centre at the General Hospital Daura-Katsina State in 2020.

NLTF intervened in the purchase and donation of Emergency Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and COVID-19 Test kids across the six geo-political zones of Nigeria in 2020 and the purchase of vital medical equipment to Gbaja Randle Hospital Mother & Child Care, General Hospital, Gbaja Street, Surulere, Lagos State in 2022.

The NLTF is committed to sustaining its ongoing interventions in the health sector by promoting all-inclusive healthcare coverage across the 36 states of the federation and the FCT and leveraging the enabling environment for Lottery business revenue growth created by the current administration, in fulfilment of President Bola Tinubu’s government’s agenda.

In line with development, the National Lottery Trust Fund has revitalised more than 40 healthcare facilities across Nigeria’s six geo-political zones in the last two years.

Former Minister of Special Duties and Inter-Governmental Affairs and current Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume, disclosed this during the recent official inauguration and handover of vital medical equipment to the General Hospital, Igboora, Oyo.

Akume expressed satisfaction with the remarkable progress made by the NLTF and said that the agency had done very well in implementing intervention programmes in health and other key infrastructural sectors.

“The federal government is impressed with the agency’s resolve to deliver life-changing outcomes to the people through its interventions, despite the dwindling global economy and the agency’s meagre income. The government is aware of your revitalisation of over 40 healthcare facilities across the six geo-political zones within the last two years, putting

smiles on the faces of ordinary Nigerians in remote villages and communities,” he said.

Akume, therefore, charged the agency to extend the laudable interventions to other primary healthcare centres across the country

In her remarks, Mrs Patricia Ibiene, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Special Duties, said that the agency’s gigantic interventions were timely considering the state of the country’s healthcare facilities. Ibiene noted that the projects were a clear testament to the good leadership of the NLTF and commended the executive secretary and his management team for these very important interventions in equipping the health sector and other developmental sectors across Nigeria.

Ibiene cited the Jump Start School Project initiated and designed to provide learning and teaching aids to more than 45 public schools and the Gbaja Randle Maternity Hospital, both in Surulere, Lagos State, is one such project undertaken by the NLTF.

The permanent secretary further listed the Moniya General Hospital, Kugba Maternity and Onikan Healthcare Centre in Oyo, Ogun, and Lagos states.

She, therefore, called on individuals and organisations licensed and engaged in the lottery business to meet their statutory obligations of due remittance to the government to avoid legal issues.

Speaking at the event, the Executive Secretary of the NLTF, Dr Bello Maigari, said that the interventions had reaffirmed President Bola Tinubu-led administration’s commitment towards promoting quality healthcare and the well-being of the country through funding from national lottery proceeds.

“This intervention is a clear demonstration of our desire to promote social inclusion of the most vulnerable sectors of our society. We reaffirm our enduring and sincere commitment to utilising lottery proceeds judiciously for the good and general well-being of the nation,’’ Maigari said.

Therefore, he urged the Igboora community and the Oyo government to ensure the proper use and security of the equipment.

WORDS ON MARBLE

The gaming sector holds the key to economic growth and is a potent tool for addressing the pressing issues of unemployment and low per capita income. Nigeria has so much untapped potentials; and its most precious resource is its population. The gaming industry had become more dynamic, with technology, a development that has created a digital era and fundamentally reshaped how people engaged and perceived the gaming industry. The Commission would partner with operators in the gaming industry to build a world-class online lottery university.

-Lanre Gbajabiamila, Director General, National Lottery Regulatory Commission

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