Debt relief funds to enhance Nigerians' standard of living, says Yar'Adua
PRESIDENT Umaru Yar'Adua on Wednesday in Minna reiterated the Federal Government's determination to utilise the debt relief funds to enhance the standard of living of Nigerians.
He spoke at the flagging-off of a free medical care for pregnant women and children below five years, handled jointly by the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) and MDG Office.
Yar'Adua, who was represented by Dr Hassan Lawal, the supervising minister of Health, said the maternal and childcare project was being given priority, because it was capable of reversing the country's current health indices.
``Government is adopting a holistic approach in dealing with the health indices, which show that some 100 women die for every 1,000 child births, while some 197 babies die, out of every 1,000 deliveries,'' he said.
Yar'Adua said the maternal and childcare project would soon be scaled up to cover the entire country.
The project is being implemented in six states, including Oyo, Gombe, Niger, Imo, Sokoto and Bayelsa with a N5 billion grant from the debt relief fund.
The president said the project hoped to avail more than 600,000 pregnant women and children, access to free medicare within the next one-year.
He also gave the assurance that government would deploy the debt relief funds to other activities that would help to speed up the attainment of the MDG goals.
Yar'Adua urged the benefiting states to match the N5 billion grant, to enable more pregnant women and children to benefit from the project.
Earlier, Dr Dogo Muhammed, executive secretary of NHIS, said the project had the potential of transforming the health indices of the country.
``It represents a major statement of the administration in its determination and commitment toward improving the health and well-being of Nigerians,'' he said.
Muhammed said government would, by 2011, scale down its contributions to the project, with the expectation that state governments would scale-up their contributions, to enable more people to benefit from it.
Hajiya Amina Ibrahim, the senior special assistant to the President on MDGs, said the project was government's intervention to the critical problem of physical and financial access to healthcare delivery.
Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State promised to match the project's grant with an additional N1.7 billion to enable more pregnant women and children to benefit from it.
