By Chioma Obinna

ABUJA — No fewer than N4.48 billion has been spent by the Federal Government on maternal and child health in 12 states in the last two years.

This was coming on the heels of recent assessment of the NHIS-Millennium Development Goals, MDGs,/Maternal and Child Health, MCH, project by the United States Agency for International Development, USAID, which stated that the project has produced significant benefits to its target population and the communities in which they live.

The Executive Secretary, National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, Dr. Waziri Dogo-Muhammad while justifying the amount spent so far said the NHIS-Millennium Development Goals, MDGs/Maternal and Child Health, MCH, project has positively
affected the lives of the rural poor.

Dogo-Muhammad who disclosed this while undertaking a mid-term review of the project said over one million persons have accessed care under the programme and that the beneficiaries have  hitherto been unable to access healthcare,
variously as a result of financial, physical or socio-cultural barriers.

Further giving insight into the highlights of MCH initiative, the NHIS boss explained that the initiative was to achieve elimination of the financial burden associated with access to healthcare services, provision of higher quality of
services and availability of essential drugs.

Citing an independent assessment of the project conducted by USAID, he said, “The American development Agency’s assessment conservatively estimated a 640 percent return on investment, thus  recommending the leveraging of new funding
to expand the scope of the project.”

According to Dogo- Muhammad, there was the need to improve on the modest successes recorded,  expanding the benefit of the package as well as providing further support for Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) to achieve enrolment
goals, amongst other things, would go along way towards sustaining  the project.

In order not to create impression of zero-difficulty in the course of implementing the project, the Executive Secretary who is also a Consultant Urologist identified the challenges to include difficulty in reaching earmarked
areas as a result of poor terrains, dilapidated health infrastructure in most states, as well as limited funds constraining coverage to all states and Local Government Areas.

Also reacting to the report, Senior Special Assistant to the President on MDGs, Hajia Ibrahim Az Zubair,  expressed delight that the MDGs project, in its essence, has brought the interest of the  rural poor to the front burner, decrying the level of infrastructural decay that has been the lot of the Nigerian society  over time.  She commended the USAID assessment for being unbiased and scientific, stressing that the impact of the programme will be better felt when the scope of the project is expanded