Tinubu approves health fellows programme for 774 LGs

President Bola Tinubu on Monday approved the establishment of the National Health Fellows Programme to engage young Nigerian fellows in all the 774 local government areas nationwide.

This was disclosed on Monday in a statement signed by the President’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, titled ‘President Tinubu Approves establishment of National Health Fellows Programme.’

“The fellows will be recruited, remunerated, and equipped with appropriate tools to track the performance of Basic Health Care Provision Fund-supported health facilities across the nation.

“The move is in line with his determination to comprehensively upgrade existing primary healthcare centres and construct over 8,800 new primary healthcare centres across all local government areas in the country for accessible and qualitative healthcare delivery with the provision of new social accountability mechanisms,” the statement read in part.

Ngelale said the well-trained fellows will serve as fiduciary agents to “monitor and track Primary Healthcare Centre development and performance, which is to be assiduously measured against all financial inflows to the centres nationwide.”

The fellowship programme will be domiciled in the Sector Wide Approach coordination office under the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.

It comes months after the President appealed to Nigerian health workers practising abroad to “sacrifice their time to come back home and serve their people.”

Unveiling Nigeria’s Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative at the State House on December 13, 2023, Tinubu said his administration was prioritising and improving Nigeria’s health sector through massive investments and an increased allocation of funds to the sector in the proposed 2024 budget.

Tinubu, who is the African Union Champion for Human Resources in Healthcare, says he places faith in young Nigerians and expects their engagement in this critical nation-building task.

This, he said, also includes a daily monitoring and tracking of health reforms in their locations, which will usher in a new era of world-class service provision to all Nigerians in every part of the country.

Monday’s announcement coincides with World Health Day 2024 themed ‘Health For All.’