By Khalid Idris Doya
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is under the Integrated Health Program (IHP) spending the sum of N1.2 billion in support of healthcare services in Bauchi state this year (2022).
The state Coordinator of the IHP Program, Dr. Alhassan Siaka disclosed this in Bauchi at the handing over ceremony of the N42,831,200 healthcare items for Mama Pack and PHC Extension services onward distribution to 323 healthcare facilities across the state.
Dr. Siaka who said that the support was geared to remote barriers to access to service, however stated, “Sometimes because of weather conditions, some people were just unable to leave their homes to go and access healthcare services”.
“But with this support, teams from the health facilities can go to communities and actually provide services to residents”, the agency coordinator said.
“USAID is not in the habit of putting financial inclusion in the forefront. Our support is technical and therefore whatever we would provide is considered technical support to the people of Bauchi state”.
Dr. Alhassan Siaka explained that the N1.2 billion USAID support is already captured in the 2022 state budget and the operational plan of Bauchi State Healthcare Development Agency (BASHCDA), as it has been accounted every quarter of the year to the government.
“As a technical support provider, what we do is seeing as modelling and therefore we want government see that this is having the desired effect we expect to see, and government in its own form to skill-up this intervention so that more people can benefit”.
“We hope that Bauchi will continue to live up to its obligations in the Abuja declaration of its commitment to allocate a minimum of 15 percent of its budgets to healthcare. And not just allocating to the budget, but also ensuring that these budgets are released and backed with cash so that intervention can be carried out for people to benefit”.
“We would be working with the state government, IHP would provide logistics support for the government to take charge of the distributions to make sure that all the local governments receive these items, document them properly and use for the purpose they were meant”.
Receiving the items on behalf of the state government, the Executive Chairman of Bauchi State Healthcare Development Agency (BASHCDA), Dr. Rilwanu Mohammed noted with delight that USAID is always supporting the state in many ways more than any other organization.
Dr. Rilwanu Mohammed said that the state is happy with the kind of services the IHP is providing, assuring that the items received as another scorecard would reach each of the 323 health facilities across the state.
