The Federal Government through the Ministry of Health has approved the sum of 5.5 billion naira to Borno and four other states in the northeast for the implementation of its ‘Saving One Million Lives’ initiative.

The Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, stated this in a meeting with health officials from Adamawa, Taraba, Borno, Bauchi and Gombe states at the strategy planning meeting to prepare grounds for the implementation of the initiative.

The programme, which targets one million vulnerable Nigerians, is designed to improve access to primary healthcare and decrease maternal mortality and morbidity.

The ‘Saving One Million Lives’ programme is an elaborate scheme to expand access to essential primary healthcare services for women and children, launched by Nigeria’s ex-president, Dr. GoodLuck Jonathan, in 2015.

The Minister of Health said that the ‘Saving One Million Lives’ scheme will be used to evaluate the performance of the health sector in each of the states.

According to the Minister, the Federal Government would also provide drugs worth 1.2 billion naira to Borno State while the Presidential Task Force addresses urgent issues relating to health, environment and water.

Each component of the initiative the Minister said has the budget of 4.3 billion naira which has already been approved.

The minister, however, emphasised the need to utilise the resources on intended purpose as agreed upon in the meeting, threatening that any state that falls below the expected performance will not benefit from subsequent disbursements. (Channels TV)

•Photo shows Prof. Adewole.

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