The Executive director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, NPHCDA, Dr. Muyi Aina has commended governor Peter Mbah of Enugu state for his giant strides in the healthcare space, describing him as the first governor to implement some of the policies of the federal government in the health sector.

Dr. Aina made the commendation on Friday when he led other members of his team from the agency on a courtesy visit to the governor with the aim to establish a robust partnership with the state government in the area of primary healthcare development.

Our government house correspondent Fred Nnaji reports that the Executive Director also extolled the governor for his move to recruit 450 healthcare workers in the state.

While stating that Dr Mbah is the only governor in Nigeria that is very prompt in releasing the counterpart fund as and when due, Dr. Aina said the state will fully benefit from the ongoing revitalisation of the Primary Healthcare Centres across the country by the federal government.

Dr. Aina, who noted that they have completed the assessment of 253 facilities in Enugu state, said the sum of 254 Million Naira has been mapped out as part of the basic care provision fund to support the state government to revamp the healthcare facilities in the state.

He said more PHC facilities in Enugu will benefit from the agency’s increased allocation called Direct Facility Financing, as well as retraining of 3,063 health workers from Enugu State.

While expressing the state government’s preparedness to sustain the partnership with the federal agency, the governor Dr Peter Mbah said his administration is planning to build more type two primary healthcare centres across the state, apart from the 260 earlier awarded by the present administration.

Commending the federal government for its interventions in the primary healthcare space in the state, Dr Mbah said his administration has put modalities in place to ensure universal health coverage.

The governor who revealed his administration’s desire to institutionalise the primary healthcare, said the state government can no longer condone the incidence of mother and child mortality as well as child killer diseases.