Healthcare tops agenda as Osinbajo chairs NCP meeting

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, on Tuesday, presided over a virtual meeting of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP), anchored from the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The Director-General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Mr. Alex Okoh, told State House correspondents after the meeting that the Council considered memos from critical sectors of the economy at the meeting.

He said: “Certain memos with respect to critical sectors of the economy were considered from the power sector, also from the health sector.

“Council also took a major decision to adopt the report with the regards to the reform of the healthcare delivery system in the country.

“The report of the consultant was deliberated upon by Council and we took a decision that we should continue with the stakeholder engagement in various sectors, with specific regards to the health sector reform.

“What is very clear is the COVID-19 pandemic situation globally has revealed certain lapses and challenges as far the healthcare delivery system in Nigeria is concerned.

“Council in its wisdom has actually started to consider a total review of the health sector about a year ago pre the advent of the COVID-19 crisis.”

According to him, the Council took a decision that the stakeholder engagement should continue since the reform would impact positively on Nigerians.

Okoh, who is also the Secretary of the Council, said the reform promised a major universal coverage of healthcare delivery to the generality of Nigerians.

“What we are looking at essentially is a situation where the citizens of this country do not have to pay to receive quality healthcare because ailments and health issues are not what anybody will wish upon himself.

“So, we should not leave people to their own fate once they have a health challenge.

“It is far-reaching and radical reform and we hope that with the continued engagements with all the stakeholders, we should be able to deliver this as a legacy reform programme of this current administration,” the BPE chief added.