The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the
United Kingdom’s Department for International Development are partnering with
the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World
Bank, to invest $60 million to improve health in Nigeria.
United Kingdom’s Department for International Development are partnering with
the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World
Bank, to invest $60 million to improve health in Nigeria.
According to a statement by the World Bank, the investment will cover priority
health technologies and interventions among Nigeria’s poor under the African
Health Markets for Equity project.
The fund will be disbursed through the AHME partners in Nigeria, including the
Society for Family Health, Marie Stopes Nigeria, Grameen Foundation, Safe Care,
Population Services International while the International Finance Corporation
of the World Bank Group will give technical support.
The statement from the World Bank said in part: “Operating in Nigeria and two
other African countries: Kenya and Ghana, the African Health Markets for
Equity, which is a five-year investment, will increase the scale and scope of
franchised health care, expanding from family planning and sexual and
reproductive health to also address malaria, acute respiratory infections,
diarrhea, nutrition, maternal care, HIV and Tuberculosis.
“Within Nigeria, this investment is targeted at strengthening health care
providers (hospitals, clinics, pharmacies). Currently, over 60% of the health
care in Nigeria is provided by private providers.”
Khama Rogo, Lead Health Sector Specialist at the World Bank, had this to say:
“There is a big health market in Nigeria that is untapped, leveraging on this
through private providers would improve access to the poor.
“Nigerians have health specialists all over the world. If these needed
facilities are here, there is nothing stopping them from coming to be of
service here. “This project aims to impact at least one million people within
Nigeria living below the poverty line in the rural areas by directly targeting
these interventions at them and strengthening the health facilities within the
social franchise networks.
“Practically speaking, one million people over the next five years will have a
chance to overcome the barrier of being denied healthcare due to paying for it
at the point of health care delivery.” The World Bank hopes that by the fifth
year of the programme, at least 300 health facilities would have benefitted
from the support within the rural communities..