Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammadu Ali Pate
Doha, Qatar: The Doha Forum has continued to provide a unique opportunity for relevant stakeholders to come together to dialogue on relevant global issues, proffer solutions, and exchange ideas in ways that are both inclusive, encouraging, and dynamic, Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammadu Ali Pate, has said.
Speaking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of the ongoing two-day event, which started yesterday, Prof Pate noted that the Doha Forum is particularly important to Nigeria as it provided the country another platform to share not just its perspectives but also the progress the country is making on all fronts, and particularly in the health sector.
“We have to continually have dialogue between countries and between actors and have common understanding. We are able to invite others to join us in Nigeria, but also in Africa overall, to improve the health of our continent, because that also has bearing to the health of the world.
“We’ve had bilateral meetings with some key actors that we think will lead to tangible contributions in our health system. But we have also shared our learning, because even the wealthier countries can learn from us, just as we also learn from others.
“But at the end of the day, it’s in everybody’s enlightened self-interest to ensure that people have access to basic health care when they need it,” Prof Pate said.
The minister applauded the organisers of the Doha Forum for putting together an excellent event, noting that it has been well organised and very inclusive, and the forum has doubtlessly further enhanced Qatar’s reputation on the global stage.
Highlighting some of the current reforms and developments in Nigeria’s health sector, the Nigerian health minister noted that the Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative, which is a co-component of the Renewal Agenda of the current government, is focused on improving governance of health and improving population health outcomes, particularly for women and children.
“Additionally, the initiative is helping to deal with the burden of disease, non-communicable diseases like hypertension, diabetes, and cancers, unlocking the healthcare value chain, and enhancing Nigeria’s health security,” he said.
The minister noted that Nigeria has made significant strides in the last year and a half on governance with several agreements signed at both the federal and state levels with development partners aimed at increasing Nigeria’s domestic contribution in terms of financing to health by the federal government, but also encouraging the states to match up, investing in vaccination.
“We have been able to introduce vaccines like human papillomavirus vaccines, which prevent cervical cancer successfully, and malaria vaccines, which have now been administered in two states, expanding primary healthcare to more than 8,000 health facilities, as well as retraining more than 53,000 frontline health workers out of the 120,000 that we have announced that we are going to train over three years.
“We have also doubled the quotas for training of medical students, pharmacy students, and nursing students from 28,000 to 64,000 over time, expanding the infrastructure in our teaching hospitals and equipping them, and as we speak, we are expanding six cancer infrastructures and equipment in six teaching hospitals.”
The minister noted that two of these facilities are scheduled to be opened in May 2025 with the initiatives being done in collaboration with NSIA and the Federal Ministry of Health, adding that the Nigerian president has signed an executive order in June, which removes the tariff on raw materials and manufacturing equipment.
“That has been gazetted, which provides incentive for those who want to come and invest in Nigeria’s health sector. And at least more than 50 investment cases have been developed. And businesses are welcome to come and invest in Nigeria’s health sector and the healthcare value chain,” he added.
