The Kwara State Government, North Central Nigeria has awarded contracts worth five Billion Naira (N5b) for facility upgrades across 70 Primary Health Care facilities in the three senatorial districts in the state, Kwara Central, Kwara North and Kwara South Senatorial Districts, promoting them to Level 2 PHCs.
READ ALSO:Abia Govt launches remodeling of 200 PHCs
The Executive Secretary, Kwara State Primary Health Care Development Agency (KWHCDA), Professor Nusirat Elelu, stated this during the contract signing event held at the Agency, revealing that the intervention will include infrastructural upgrade, solarisation, provision of staff quarters, potable water supply and supply of ultra-modern hospital equipment across all benefitting Primary Health Care facilities.
“The intervention is coming with the support of the World Bank supported Immunisation Plus and Malaria Progress by Accelerating Progress and Transforming Services (IMPACT) project.”
“It will make Primary Health Care facilities better positioned to provide quality and improved Primary Health Care services across the State. The overall objective is to make all the PHC facilities ‘fit for purpose’ since the PHC system is the first contact with the national health system”, the Executive Secretary.
Prof. Elelu implored all the successful bidders to ensure that they deliver quality job to justify the trust reposed in them, warning that any Contractor that is found wanting will have his contract terminated immediately.
She noted that the contracts will be given very close supervision to ensure judicious use of the investment made in the project, pointing out that this is part of the efforts of the Kwara State Government to revitalise the PHC system in the state.
The Executive Secretary recalled that 53 PHCs had earlier been renovated by the state government, while 9 PHCs are presently under renovation, stating that more facilities will still be renovated by the Kwara State Government in the near future.
“This is a further demonstration of the commitment of the administration of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq to the Primary Health Care system. Similarly, some 1,005 Primary Health Care workers, including doctors, were recently recruited into the PHC system to ensure availability of adequate human resources to man these facilities”, Prof. Elelu said.
IMPACT Programme Manager, Dr. Michael Oguntoye, said the contract is to be delivered within 3 months and the State will not tolerate undue delay in the implementation of the project, adding that the PHC upgrade is one out of the several interventions the state is benefitting from the IMPACT project, which is aimed at reducing maternal and child morbidity and mortality.
He added that the primary beneficiaries of the IMPACT project are under-five children and women, disclosing that the project interventions will also improve access to health services for all residents in state.
Dr. Oguntoye said that IMPACT will also strengthen national monitoring and evaluation systems as well as contribute to demand generation and service quality improvement nationally.
The contract signing event was attended by successful bidders, members of the Project Implementation Unit of IMPACT project, Directors, and the media.
Comments are closed.