President Bola Tinubu has been appointed the African Union (AU) Champion for Human Resources for Health and Community Health Delivery Partnership. This is following his ambitious, innovative, and people-focused efforts in the sector.
According to a statement on Friday by his spokesman, Chief Ajuri Ngelale, the honour came in recognition of President Tinubu’s commitment to train 120,000 frontline health workers nationwide within 16 months and to double the number of primary health facilities in communities across all local government areas in Nigeria from 8,800 to over 17,000 in the next three years.
Ngelale said that the President is also committed to doubling health personnel enrolment capacity from accredited nursing and midwifery institutions to accommodate the new demand created by new facilities across Nigeria, while he is resolved to establish a paid volunteer youth force of social accountability officers to monitor the operational functioning and financial integrity of primary health centres.
He said that the African Union identified the Nigerian leader as the right champion for the noble and actionable continental effort.
In a letter to Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs , the Commission of the African Union (Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention — Africa CDC) said that President Tinubu was appointed on the recommendation of the Committee of Heads of State and Government of Africa CDC, under the leadership of Comorian President Azali Assoumani, who is the AU Chairperson.
In his new role, the commission invited President Tinubu to address the Ministerial Executive Leadership Programme (MELP) under the theme, ‘Impactful Leadership in Health: A Whole Government Approach’, billed for Saturday at the Africa CDC Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on the margins of the 37th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of AU Heads of State and Government.
The Tinubu administration is attracting global investments in Nigeria’s health sector for the provision of cutting-edge infrastructure, equipment, and world-class manpower for improved access to quality healthcare by all Nigerians.
