By Kemi Yesufu
Executive-Director the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr. Faisal Shuaib has identified effective collaborations between the Federal Government and states as critical to improving the quality and availability of health services in the rural areas.
Speaking at the orientation of the pioneer set of enrollees for a 6-month capacity building programme by the NPCHDA Leadership Development Academy, Shuaib said the goal of the agency is to increase the number of its qualified staff who will work with states to widen access to health services across the country.
He said: “As with any fast growing organization, the NPHCDA places high premium on its workforce and continually invests in its staff capacity strengthening to optimise their effectiveness and work efficiency.
“While the agency has implemented a few capacity building interventions in recent times, those interventions targeted pockets of NPHCDA staff centered on strengthening the technical capabilities of the agency’s workforce- leaving the ever present gap of insufficient pool of agency staff that can lead and coordinate full suite of technical assistance to all 37 state primary healthcare agencies.
“The NPHCDA Leadership Development Academy will deliver advanced, cutting edge leadership and management skills that will uniquely position NPHCDA staff to solve critical primary healthcare problems, communicate effectively, works collaboratively in teams, own and drive their personal and the agency’s development”.
30 enrollees from Level 10-14 in the six geo-political zones were selected through a rigorous process for the leadership training programme.
Speaking to Frontline News Online, two enrollees, Dr. Fatima Wanka North-West Zonal Technical Officer and Olalekan Oladele, South West Zonal Planning Research and Statistics focal person, expressed confidence that the training would empower them to better assist states in executing primary health care programmes and policies.
“We are very pleased as enrollees as this training would help us improve on our skills as professionals. The skills we will acquire will help us contribute to the NPHCDA meeting its goal of widening access to primary health care.
“With widening the access to health services for many Nigerians, we would have assisted our agency in significantly reducing the country’s health indices which has caused us worry as a country, in tandem with the aspirations of government.
“What we are participating in is a sort of train- the- trainer programme. But we will be working through states primary health agencies. We will be providing them with technical support; we will train them from the state to LG and community level and follow up with technical support for all interventions”, Wanka said.
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