By Erezi Efeunu & Daniel Oduvwu

The Minister of Health, Prof. Isacc  Adewole has cautioned Commissioners of Health in the North -East to carefully utilise the Save One Million Lives fund provided by the Federal Govenment in order to qualify for the second phase of the programme in 2017. Adewole, who gave the warning last week in Maiduguri, during the operationalisation meeting of programme organised for the Commissioners of Health of Bauchi, Gombe Taraba, Adamawa and Borno states.

It would be recalled that in July 2016, government  presented US$1.5 million each to the 36 states of the Federation and the FCT to improve maternal and child health.

Maximum benefits

“Today I am to share knowledge with you on how you can derive maximum benefits from the save one million lives initiatives. I am impressed with your presence, however, I must say it clearly that the money given to you should not replace your budget for health , rather  it is an addition, it is to augment, do not allow it to be the only budget for health in your state.

“I hope we can still score you on your budgetary allocation on health, how much do you budget for health, how much do you release, how do you utilise it, how many lives do you save, how do you improve governance structure among others,” he noted”

The save one million lives initiative gives room for practical assessment of health performance and determines whether the state government  would receive more funds next year or otherwise. If there is no performance, there would be no  additional money to the state.

Adewole urged the State Governors to allow their State Primary Health Care Development Agency, SPHCDA, to manage the resources.