…Demand for quality services, citizens urged
By Muhammad Hamisu Abdullahi
As family planning waiver has been signed yesterday, citizens in Kano State have been urged to continue to demand for quality services from medicine operators or vendors in the state.
The state Commissioner of Health, Dr. Aminu Ibrahim Tsanyawa, represented by the Director Pharmaceutical Services of the ministry, Pharm. Ghali Sule, among others, performed the signing of the waivers at the end of a meeting organized for stakeholders by a private health organization, IntegratE.
The Commissioner on behalf of the government of the state thanked the Society for Family Health for its intervention towards supporting the state in this direction.
He described the initiative as timely as it would go a long way in improving and having positive impact on family planning in the state.
Dr. Tsanyawa appreciated the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria for its support, conveying the approval of the implementation of the programme in the state.
On his part, the Project Director of IntegratE in the country, Pharmacist Emeka Okafor, who spoke to The Triumph shortly after the meeting, appreciated the state government for provision of enabling environment for health services to thrive in the state.
Pharmacist Okafor said the project inception meeting in the state gave its citithe Society for Family Health, a nongovernmental organization in the country emphasized that the need for the citizens to demand for quality service could not be overemphacised.
“The citizens should be made to understand the need to begin to demand for such quality services from such service providers.
“Even the beneficiaries should be aware of services they are provided with,” he said.
Pharmacist Okafor described IntegratE as a concept that targeted community pharmacists or agents of community medicine that have the capacity to provide wide range of services who were targeted at the programme to be well trained to render such essential services effectively.
He told The Triumph that they intended to work with stakeholders in 11 states of the federation, adding that such stakeholders included governments; ministries, departments and agencies; civil society organizations; traditional rulers and all the key actors since their services were for the betterment of all the people in such states.
He said they were working in conjunction with Pharmacy Council of Nigeria in pursuing their objectives.
He said that they have since put in a structure for proper supervision under the project.
Earlier presenting an overview of the project, its Regional Programme Manager, Malam Dayyabu Mahmud Yusuf, explained that it started as a four-year programme in Lagos and Kaduna States, adding that currently they were authorized to undertake such services in other states.
According to him, under the project, which is core-sponsored by Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation, concentrates on core care of provision of hygiene, they are now working in 11 states of the federation to include, Kano, Nasarawa, Gombe and Enugu among others.
In the area of training, Malam Yusuf said by the year 2026, they targeted to train about 5,530 healthcare providers in the selected states, adding that they currently targeted to give training to a total of 950 private health providers in Kano.
He said they needed support from the stakeholders for the programme to succeed, saying that they were collaborating with the state government towards ensuring an enabling environment for the project.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Executive Secretary of the state Private Health Institution Management Agency, Dr. Usman Tijjani Aliyu, who doubled as the chairman of the occasion, described the initiative as a very good intervention aimed at empowering pharmacist and medicine vendors.
He reiterated that such intervention from the organization would go a long way in enhancing healthcare in the country.
Dr. Aliyu noted that the beneficiaries would receive training on some key problems militating against the society, health wise, expressing delight that they would now be equipped with knowledge on how to manage simple cases and refer others to hospitals.
Among the dignitaries that attended the meeting included the chairman of the state House of Assembly Committee on Health, Hon. Musa Ali Kachako, the member representing Rogo Constituency in the Assembly, Pharm. Magaji Dahiru Zarewa and the District Head of Kiru in Karaye Emirate, Alhaji Garba Alhaji.
The event was brought to an end with the signing of the family planning waivers in the state.
