The United States Agency for International Development, USAID has visited Ebonyi State, Southeast Nigeria for more partnership on how to improve general well-being of the masses.
The USAID Health Population and Nutrition (HPN) Office in Nigeria led by the Director, Mr Paul McDermott stated this when he paid a courtesy visit to the Ebonyi State Governor, at Executive Chambers at old Government House Abakaliki, the Ebonyi state capital.
Other members of the team are: Dr Sylvester Akande (USAID HSS Specialist), Mr Ebenezer Oluloto (USAID Nutrition Specialist), Mr Justus Uzim (USAID Monitoring Evaluation Research and Learning MERL Specialist).
The visit is in furtherance of USAID’s support for the state through the Primary Health Care Memorandium Of Understanding.
Mr McDermott said; “USAID is one of the biggest donors currently supporting Ebonyi state with about 10 different activities/programs currently implementing namely;
“USAID Integrated Health Programme (IHP), Global Health Supply Chain- Procurement Supply Management (GHSC-PSM), Presidents Malaria Initiative for States PMI-S, Breakthrough Action Nigeria (BA-N), State to State (S2S), Momentum Country Global Leadership GBV (MCGL GBV) activity, Health Workforce Management (HWM), Promoting the Quality of Medicines Plus (PQM+) programme, Feed the Future (FTF), and Momentum Safe Surgery (MSSFPO)”
These programmes have made tremendous impact in the state, and continue to work closely with the state to improve the health and lives of the people of Ebonyi state.
“The USAID team is interested in finding out the challenges and progress on COVID-19 vaccination as well as to review implementation of the above projects and to discuss the way forward,” McDermott added.
On his part, the Deputy Governor of Ebonyi State, Dr Kelechi Igwe who represented the the Governor, David Umahi thanked the USAID team for the results of the assessment they have made in the State so far.
Dr. Igwe urged USAID to also help the state in data collection, analysis, and Storage for the betterment of the State.
He said; “the state is number one in terms of partnering with International Donor Agencies like USAID.”
Mercy Chukwudiebere
