UHC: UK donates £2m to strengthen Nigeria’s health workforce

By Tobias Lengnan Dapam

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it has welcomed £2m

funding commitment made by the United Kingdom’s Department of Health and Social Care to support Nigeria.

It said the fund is meant to strengthened Nigeria’s health workforce in the vision of achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

It added that the grant will run over a two year period to support the government of Nigeria to optimise the performance, quality and impact of the health workforce through evidence-informed policies and strategies.

Also, UK will provided a multi-million-pound boost to support healthcare staff recruitment and retention in three African countries of Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana, in a bid to build resilience against global health challenges.

A statement issued on Tuesday by WHO Representative in Nigeria, Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo, said the implementation at sub-national levels will focus on six states of Cross River, Enugu, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano and Lagos.

The statement said, it will build on the presence and technical support being provided to State governments through the 37 WHO sub-national offices in Nigeria.

“The strength of every health system reflects the capacity and adequacy of its health workforce, which are necessary to deliver quality services to address population health needs.

“Through the UK government’s generous support through WHO, we will deploy the technical support from the 3 levels of the organisation to support the development of evidence-based policies and strategies, capacity building and management for improved planning and management of Nigeria’s health workforce,” said Mulombo.

Meanwhile, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr Richard Montgomery says, “A skilled, well-motivated and adequate health workforce is critical for Nigeria to #EndPreventableDeaths and build resilience against global threats.

“This UK International Development funding aligns with the Nigerian health workforce strategic plan and will help the country upskill its workers, and improve health outcomes in the long run.”