From recent news;  The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, yesterday, said the central bank had disbursed over N83.9 billion to pharmaceutical and healthcare practitioners in the country since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

In his statement below as published on today.ng;

The CBN’s Director of Corporate Communications, Osita Nwasinobi, explained: “Building a robust healthcare infrastructure was also vital from a security perspective, as some nations had imposed restrictions on the exports of vital medical drugs as well as the use of drug patents that could aid in containing the spread of the pandemic.”

“As a result, we focused our interventions in the healthcare sector on three areas. Building the capacity of our healthcare institutions supporting the domestic manufacturing of drugs by businesses, and providing grants to researchers in the medical field, in order to encourage them to develop breakthrough innovations that would address health challenges faced by Nigerians.

“In this regard we disbursed over N83.9 billion in loans to pharmaceutical companies and healthcare practitioners, which is supporting 26 pharmaceutical and 56 medical projects across the country. We were also able to mobilise key stakeholders in the Nigerian economy through the CACOVID alliance, which led to the provision of over N25 billion in relief materials to affected households, and the set-up of 39 isolation centres across the country. These measures helped to expand and strengthen the capacity of our healthcare institutions to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Government’s Responsibility to Healthcare

Healthcare is one of the greatest things in which a government can invest. Early prevention, which is relatively inexpensive, can prevent dire and expensive health care problems later in life.

In Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Health is the primary office of executive branch of government which is the subject that carries responsibility for generating and performing policies and arrangements concerning health care, simultaneously with another significant activities.

These activities are to develop and support a public health system competent of delivering an adequate, qualified, affordable and quality health services, and to raise an upgraded condition of living for the population throughout the country.

Primarily Nigerian government responsibility is to diminish the morbidity and death levels, which are caused by infectious illnesses, to the lowest point possible. Also, it is to change the escalating predominance of non-infectious diseases, adhere to world destinations toward the rejection and extermination of mortiferous conditions, and ground-breakingly improve the average expectancy of life and well-being of living for Nigeria’s population. Source

So, these are some necessary aspects on the role of the governments in the health care in the country.

This article is for informational purpose only. We appreciate our government’s efforts and encourage them to do more in the healthcare sector.