The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has employed 203 midwives and community health extension workers to boost primary healthcare services, FCT Minister of State, Dr Ramatu Aliyu, said on Thursday.
Aliyu, who spoke at the launch of 12 kilowatts solar power plant in Abuja, said that those recruited had worked in the defunct Midwives Service Scheme and Sure-P programmes.
The solar power plant is expected to serve the primary healthcare centres in Karu.
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Aliyu regretted that the state of FCT primary healthcare infrastructure was adjudged unacceptably poor in 2018, with just 30 per cent of required minimum human resources for effective service delivery.
She said that the FCT administration had articulated a three-year costed PHC Infrastructure Rehabilitation Plan involving 100 of the 247 PHC facilities across the six Area Councils, to change that narrative.
Represented by Dr Iwot Ndaeyo, Acting Secretary, FCT Primary Healthcare Board, Aliyu noted that PHC infrastructure, electricity, water supply, vaccines storage and sanitary waste management system formed the performing elements used by WHO to evaluate Health Care Access and Quality Index Assessment.
The minister, who said that the FCTA was set for partners, called on primary healthcare stakeholders to support the PHC scheme development in the next three years and beyond.
She commended Volsus Energy for partnering with the Federal Ministry of Power to execute the solar energy project for health programme, stressing that the initiative was a clear demonstration of a successful inter-departmental and inter-sectoral collaboration.
“That collaboration is one of the key principles of PHC scheme,” she pointed out.
The minister added that the programme was designed to facilitate sustainable alternative energy system for the PHC system in Nigeria using sustainable and cost-effective technology.