The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) establishing collaboration between USAID/Nigeria and FCTA to improve the health of residents in the territory.
The Mission Director USAID/Nigeria, Anne Patterson, said that though the health status of the FCT population was fair when compared with other states of the federation but with the country’s North east crisis and perception of economic opportunities in the nation’s capital, FCT has seen an increase in the influx of people from other parts of the country.
She, further noted that this population increase was putting stress on the available public infrastructure, especially primary healthcare facilities, which are ill-equipped and under-resourced to address the increased health needs of the residents.
“The purpose of the MOU is to support the revitalisation of the FCT healthcare system to deliver quality, affordable, and sustainable preventive and primary healthcare services to the residents of FCT. With the signing of this MOU, USAID expects to apply global best practices and provide high-level technical expertise to assist the FCTA to meet their health improvement goals to operationalize their health plans and their reform strategies,” she said.
The MoU, specified that the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS) would serve as the baseline for overall health status improvement, while the 2023 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey would serve as the end line survey.
It also acknowledged the Nigerian Government and FCT Department of Health and Human Services Secretariat policies, standards, and implementation guidelines for achieving health health systems strengthening especially Primary Health Care Under One Roof (PHCUOR) and Primary Health Care (PHC) systems and service delivery.
The Minister of State for Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Dr. Ramatu Aliyu, signed on behalf of the FCT Administration and Mission Director USAID/Nigeria, Anne Patterson signed for the Agency.
Dr Aliyu acknowledged the tremendous role of USAID/Nigeria, in the development of healthcare facilities in the FCT, stating that the administration would actively sustain and build on the cost-effective intervention of this partnership.
The minister recalled that USAID had recently supported the FCT Administration with a $20 million investment in family planning and reproductive health interventions, supporting facilities to improve service delivery, distributing contraceptive commodities, and increasing demand among local communities for these services and products.
The MoU shall cover a period of 5 years. As part of this effort, USAID plans to commit $45 million over a period of 5 years for FCT through four existing health activities namely: the Integrated Health Programme, Breakthrough Action, Health Workforce Management, and the Global Health Supply Chain.
