Health
NHIA branded drugs to be prescribed at healthcare facilities soon – FG
NHIA branded drugs to be prescribed at healthcare facilities soon – FG
The Executive Secretary, National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Prof. Mohammed Sambo, says that plans are on to ensure that NHIA branded drugs are distributed to health care facilities and prescribed to NHIA enrolees.
He made the disclosure on Tuesday in Abuja, during the 17th edition of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration scorecard series which featured the minister of health.
According to Sambo, the NHIA medicine supply initiative has been established and the committee is working to finalise the selection of companies that will be manufacturing drugs for Nigerians with NHIA branding.
He added that the initiative was made up of stakeholders in the process of drugs manufacturing.
“This is so that manufacturers of drugs in Nigeria who have agreed will manufacture drugs with NHIA branding and it will be purchased and distributed to healthcare facilities and that is what will be prescribed to patients.
“With this no one will say that the drugs they are given at healthcare facilities are fake or substandard and in the next few weeks this system will be in place.
“In the world, there is an essential drug list for health insurance, Nigeria also has such a list, which when it is being established, takes cognisance of the various prevailing health care challenges in the environment,” he said.
He also said that the drugs on that list would be generic, as no one would put branded names on essential drugs list, because branded names were patents, but that scientifically, drugs had their own chemical constituents.
He, however, added that all the drugs that would be developed would be in that constituent and that any drug found in any health care facility would work the same way as branded drugs.
On the strength of health insurance in a growing economy like Nigeria, the secretary said that the power and potency of health insurance was the ability to pull resources by using cross subsidisation.
“What health insurance does is that it pulls risks and resources together so that people that cannot afford health insurance today can access health care.
“The resources of the rich and poor are put in one basket and the risks of the more vulnerable segment of the population are put in that one basket and the money in the pool is used to pay for the health care services for them when it is needed.
“As such there will be cross subsidisation so that those who are more vulnerable to falling sick can benefit from the health insurance fund.
“Secondly the ability of health insurance to deliver services is contingent on the amount of funds that is gathered which is largely sourced from the salary of the workers”, he said.
According to him, the pool of health insurance being gathered in Nigeria is a far cry from other countries because of the disparity in minimum wage.
“What you gather is what will enable you to determine the service that you will deliver.
“So you will realise that in a developing country, the kind of services that you will purchase will match the amount of pool that you have gathered. Therefore, you cannot gather a small amount of money and expect huge amount of services.
“We have to go with the level that we are developing.
“As we are developing, there is going to be an increase in fiscal space and economic growth and salary of workers and more contribution in the health insurance fund and that is how it will grow to a level that it will be able to cover everybody,” he said.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the NHIA, formerly known as the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), was established under NHIA Act 2022 by the Federal Government to improve access to quality and affordable healthcare for all Nigerians.
NHIA branded drugs to be prescribed at healthcare facilities soon – FG
NSCDC Takes Medical Outreach to Community in Nasarawa
By: Michael Mike
The Nigeria Security and Civil. Defence Corps have continued to strengthen collaborations with one of the best HMOs in Nigeria, the United Healthcare International Ltd., this is in a bid to improve the well being of the serving officers and some host communities and also improve on grassroot security techniques and effective information gathering to forestall criminality.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of a medical outreach organised by the NSCDC Commandant General, Dr Ahmed Audi, said the partnership with the United Healthcare International has positively impacted the Corps hence in order to give back to the communities and further foster and improve on the existing synergy between NSCDC and host communities, the Medical Health Service Department of the NSCDC organized the medical outreach programme to promote effective collaborations.
Delivering a goodwill message while representing the CG at the opening ceremony, ACG Ilelaboye Oyejide reiterated the commitment of the Corps to enhancing the health and well being of not only officers and men of the Corps but also the host
communities.
“In carrying out our statutory mandates, it requires the supports of the host communities for positive results and this is why the NSCDC is concerned about the state of health and wellness of the people.
“As an agency with the roles and responsibility of Disaster mitigation we belief that the free medical outreach organized for the people will go a long way to further cement the existing working relationship of the Corps and the entire community”.
The NSCDC Boss hinted that the Medical outreach would be carried out in various communities as time unfolds he noted that the Corps medical officers alongside the United Healthcare HMOs would be at Laminga Local Government Area of Nasarawa State for the first phase in the year.
NSCDC Takes Medical Outreach to Community in Nasarawa
Korean Film Festival Returns to Nigeria After COVID-19 Break
By: Michael Mike
The Korean Embassy in Nigeria has commenced the Korean Film Festival in Nigeria after it went on break during the CIVID-19 pandemic.
The latest edition is the 12th Edition of the festival and was hosted at the Silverbird Cinema, in Abuja between 19th September to 21st September 2024 with several movies screened.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, the Korean ambassador to Nigeria, Kim Pankyu, expressed delight with the return of the festival after it was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
He said: “I have come to deeply feel that South Korea and Nigeria share a strong cultural affinity, especially in their love for music and dance.
“Due to this cultural affinity, various elements, such as fashion and cuisine, along with music, are resonating in Nigeria.
“Particularly, there has been a significant surge in the spread of dramas and films.”
He added that: “Along with the global hit ‘Squid Game’ in 2021, the most-watched drama series on Netflix Nigeria in 2022 was ‘Alchemy of souls’.
“Thus, I have come to realise the importance of introducing Korean films to Nigeria, one of the world’s top 3 film-producing countries.”
Also speaking at the event, the Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture, Mr Obi Asika, said millions of Nigerians had fallen in love with K-pop [Korean music] and K-drama [Korean drama].
He said Nigeria would continue to learn from the Koreans to improve its entertainment industry.
Korean Film Festival Returns to Nigeria After COVID-19 Break
New UNAIDS Report that Debt Crisis Has Left Health Chronically Underfunded in Africa
By: Michael Mike
Growing public debt is choking sub-Saharan African countries, leaving them with little fiscal room to finance health and critical HIV services, a new report by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS).
The report said domestic revenues, debt relief and development aid: Transformative pathways for ending AIDS by 2030 Eastern and Southern Africa/ Western and Central Africa, shows that the debt crisis is putting in jeopardy progress made towards ending AIDS.
It added that sub-Saharan Africa accounts for the largest number of people living with HIV, with more than 25.9 million people of the 39.9 million living with HIV globally. The region’s success in having reduced new HIV infections by 56% since 2010 will not be sustained if fiscal space is constrained.
The report, released ahead of the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, showed that the combination of growing public debt payments and spending cuts set out in International Monetary Fund agreements in the next three to five years will, if unaddressed, leave countries dangerously under resourced to fund their HIV responses.
The UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said: “When countries cannot effectively look after the health care needs of their people because of debt payments, global health security is put at risk,” adding that: “Public debt needs to be urgently reduced and domestic resource mobilization strengthened to enable the fiscal space to fully fund the global HIV response and end AIDS.”
The report said debt servicing now exceeds 50% of government revenues in Angola, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia, adding that even after debt relief measures, Zambia will still be paying two-thirds of its budget on debt servicing between 2024 and 2026.
It said there has been a noted decline in HIV response spending since 2017 in Western and Central Africa, from 0.3% of GDP in 2017 to just 0.12% in 2022.
It said Western and Central Africa will need to mobilize US$ 4.18 billion to fully fund the HIV response in 2024. This will climb to US$ 7.9 billion by 2030 unless efforts are scaled up today to stop new HIV infections.
While US$ 20.8 billion was available for the HIV response in 2022 in low and middle-income countries through both domestic and international sources, this funding was not enough to sufficiently finance the HIV response. Western and Central Africa for example had a funding shortfall of 32% in 2022.
In 2024 alone, Eastern and Southern Africa will need to mobilize almost US$ 12 billion to fully fund the HIV response. This amount will climb to around US$ 17 billion by 2030 unless new HIV infections are reduced.
It said to enable increased domestic resource mobilization for countries to respond effectively to their pandemics, sub-Saharan African countries will need to strengthen their tax systems, including closing tax exemptions which currently cost countries an average of 2.6% of GDP in lost revenue across the region. Donors need also to scale up financial assistance for health and the HIV response between now and 2030, while creditors should offer debt relief to heavily indebted countries to ease the burden.
Byanyima said: “World leaders cannot let a resource crunch derail global progress to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.”
New UNAIDS Report that Debt Crisis Has Left Health Chronically Underfunded in Africa
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