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As part of measures to improve healthcare delivery and bring healthcare services closer to the people, the Enugu State Government is currently building 260 brand new type – 2 primary healthcare centres across the state.

This was disclosed by the state governor, Dr. Peter Mbah, when he received in audience the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Tunji Alausa, who paid him a courtesy visit at the Government House, Enugu.

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He said the state government had taken significant steps at improving the healthcare sector, which would ensure increased access to quality healthcare facilities by residents across the state regardless of financial status.

Governor Mbah, who further noted that innovative measures were being taken by his administration to transform the healthcare sector, expressed delight over the federal government’s interest in efforts of the sub-nationals to build a robust and resilient system.

“I am glad that this present federal government is recognising the roles the states play to achieve their health indicators, those targets that we have, whether it’s maternal or infant mortality rate, it won’t happen from top-to-bottom, it’s going to happen from bottom-to-top.

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“We are doing some aggressive things also in collaboration with the federal government. We are currently constructing brand new 260-type 2 primary healthcare centres in the 260 wards of the state.

“Just like yourself, when we came in, we recognised that we couldn’t craft an excellent strategy. We were not able to obtain enough data, so, we immediately sent forth and gathered data to enable us plan and be able to tackle, and identify the gaps we have across different strata of our healthcare system, whether in the primary, secondary, or tertiary healthcare system,” Governor Mbah added.

According to him, the administration had already identified deficits in infrastructure, shortage of personnel or workforce, among other factors, as the major challenges facing productivity in the health sector in the state, saying the government was stepping up efforts to use technology and its already designed developmental template to address the problems and make the system not only attractive but also effective, efficient and functional.

“We have also a robust developmental plan to address the issues of fees. As we are dealing with the infrastructural deficits that we have identified, we also know that we have the same deficits in manpower, and just few minutes ago, before you arrived, we were already handling some tension with resident doctors who were also concerned that the lack of manpower was also affecting their productivity, and something needed to be done in that regard.

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“We are also glad that technology has a role to play. We welcome also with delight the news about how we can grow the number of manpower we are producing, at least double the manpower we are producing in the country. That is indeed, heartwarming,” he said.

The governor, however, lamented the mass exodus of medical personnel from the country in pursuit of greener pastures abroad saying, “It is really a challenge, this japa syndrome. I don’t think there is anywhere, any sector that has suffered the most as the medical sector in terms of the migration syndrome. So, I am glad that the federal government is rising to the occasion. They are taking steps to ensure that we raise more medical professionals.

“We are sure that is one way to go, working assiduously in the area of technology, looking at telemedicine and how we will be able to get the data we are gathering, so that we can have health reports, the electronic health reports of patients.”

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Speaking further on the Universal Healthcare Coverage, the governor said, “That is an area we have been working with the federal government to ensure that, even before the enactment of National Health Insurance Act, we already had our own state health insurance law. We started the implementation of Universal Healthcare Coverage, and that is still in progress. Our aim is to ensure that everybody here in Enugu has access to quality healthcare.”

Earlier, the minister had told the governor that he was in Enugu to witness the graduation of students of Federal School of Dental Technology, Enugu, disclosing that the institution is in affiliation with the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, and now a degree-awarding institution. “Today, they have over 2000 students in that school. They will be graduating about 300 students on Thursday. Besides that, they had built a lot of capacity. It’s actually the model we are using for all other institutions of ours. We did a lot of diagnoses to know what needed to be done.”

He assured that despite the difficulty in the healthcare sector, the President had concluded plans to revamp the sector.

“To me, it is difficult, but he did that in Lagos when he was a governor. That’s what he wants to do at the federal level, to revitalise the health system in the country.

“Now, when we got in there, we did our diagnosis; we got a lot of review; we got international consultants and we talked with the entire staff of the federal health ministry. We got in all the medical directors; we talked; we looked at the challenges to know what we wanted to accomplish . Unfortunately, the indicator in Enugu might be good; the one in Niger State might be good, but when they aggregate it together like the infant maternal mortality is not in good some places, but then, we must fix it. We came up with four pillars of how we will proceed.”

He said accountability, improvement in infrastructural growth, unlocking of value chain across the healthcare industry, and ensuring social and national security would help to achieve the core target of government in the system.

The minister also said that the federal government was addressing the challenges of migration by health workers with the right academic environment where more students would be admitted and trained and have better welfare package,adding that they would be graduating about 60,00 nurses very soon.

“Whatever you think we can do for you as a state at the national level, it’s also part of out agenda; better collaboration, better coordination of resources,” he said.

Enugu gov’t acquires additional 200 hectares of land for cassava cultivation in Nkanu East LGA

The Enugu State government has acquired additional 200 hectares of land for the cultivation of cassava in Nkanu East Local Government Area of the state.

This was made known by the State Commissioner for Agriculture and Agro-Industrialisation, Mr Patrick Ubru during an inspection tour of cassava farmlands in Amagunze, Nkanu East local government council, on Wednesday.

Mr. Ubru, who was accompanied by the Chairman of Nkanu East LGA, Hon. Sydney Okechukwu Edeh, expressed delight over the fertility of lands for the cultivation of a variety of crops in the area, saying the state was working towards achieving food security, as well as for export.

He said the Peter Mbah administration was aiming at becoming one of the top three economically viable states in Nigeria through massive agricultural rebirth.

He assured that the state would establish cassava processing clusters in the three local governments of Uzo-Uwani, Nkanu East, and Aninri for cassava production for bioethanol and others purposes in the cassava value chain.

“I commend the Chairman of Nkanu East LGA for keying into this wonderful initiative of the governor who is very passionate about transforming the agricultural sector of the state, creating jobs and eradicating hunger. Our initiative is Cassava to Bioethanol Value Chain Development, and with this, the governor hopes to unlock the rural areas, create employment opportunities for the people, and make Enugu the food basket of the country.

“We already have markets for our produce, most of which we want to be exporting to Europe and other parts of the world,” Ubru said.

Also speaking, the Nkanu East council chairman, Hon. Sydney Edeh said the target given by the state government to the council was 50 hectares of land, adding that they had already cultivated and planted over 60 hectares of cassava, while looking forward to upscaling to 200 hectares in no distant time.

Commending Governor Mbah for zeal agriculture and food production in the state, Hon. Edeh restated the council’s willingness to partner with the state government in realizing its objectives, stating that the 6 council areas of Enugu East senatorial district had earmarked 100,000 hectares of land for the cultivation of different crops as their contribution to the total 300,000 hectares of land for agricultural projects across the state.

“These agricultural projects will not only generate employment for our people but will also help in reducing insecurity in Nkanu East because some of the forests we have in Nkanu East, especially in Akpawfu. The forests, which served as hideouts for criminals, have totally been turned to cassava farms. So, with the assistance of the state government, we have been able to curtail insecurity by embarking on a good project like this.

“Remember that the governor traveled to Indonesia recently to woo investors. It is our duty to assist the state in making sure that the environment is suitable for business to thrive,” Edeh said.

Some of the officials present at the occasion were the Deputy Chairman of Nkanu East, Hon. Ndubuisi Agbo, Secretary to the local government, Mr. Emeka Nnamene, Supervisor for Agriculture, Sunday Ogbu, Chairman Committee on Agriculture, Chief Sam Udeh, amongst others.