10,000 professional kits have been distributed to midwives across the South-East zone, as part of the ongoing national health workforce retraining and support programme under the Renewed Hope Agenda.
The initiative at the instance of the Federal Government, was flagged off in Enugu State on Monday.
The kits, officially presented by the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, included 10,000 branded scrubs and 10,000 pairs of crocs.
Addressing the gathering, Senator Tinubu said the donation complements federal investments aimed at reducing maternal and infant mortality, adding that it is a practical show of support for the hardworking midwives who are essential to the country’s healthcare system.
Senator Tinubu also announced a N50 million grant to empower 1,000 petty traders in Enugu State, with the sum of N50,000 each.
Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Adekunle Salako, said the initiative is a critical intervention that has benefited over 40% of Nigeria’s registered midwives, noting that with only about 154,000 registered midwives in the country, the effort will help boost the national targets of reducing maternal mortality by 20% and under-five mortality by 15% by 2027.
Commending the First Lady’s leadership in public health, Dr. Salako named her Nigeria’s “Chief Public Health Champion,” citing her advocacy for tuberculosis elimination, cervical cancer prevention, improved immunization, and better nutrition, amongst others.
He highlighted the major strides of the Federal government through the Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative and operationalization of the Renewed Hope Agenda, to include establishment of 12 new tertiary hospitals, employment of over 15,000 health workers, vaccination of 14 million girls against HPV, delivered over 500 high impact infrastructural projects in hospitals, grown health insurance coverage by over 15%, trained over 60,000 front line health workers, upgraded over 1000 PHCs, with about 3000 others ongoing, and disbursed over N86bn to Basic Primary Health care Provision Fund.
The minister said the launch of the Free to Shine Triple Elimination Campaign for HIV/AIDS, Syphilis, and Hepatitis, targets the elimination of mother-to-child transmission and improved treatment access for women and children.
The effort is part of a wider initiative spearheaded by the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) to support 120,000 frontline health workers across the country, of which over 60,000 have already completed retraining.
