The Niger State Government has reiterated its commitment to providing affordable and qualitative healthcare services to the people of the state.
The state commissioner for primary healthcare, Dr. Ibrahim Dangana, stated this at the commissioning of the renovated Elizabeth Shaba Comprehensive Healthcare Centre facility in the Nyikangbe community of Chanchaga Local Government area.
The facility, which was given a facelift by the Chanchaga Local Government Council under the leadership of Hon. Aminu Yakubu Ladan, has a new laboratory building, an ultrascan machine, bedding, as well as other medical equipment and doctors' residences.
The Commissioner explained that the gesture by the Chanchaga Local Government Council chairman was in line with the mandate of the Governor, Mohammed Umaru Bago, to upgrade all primary healthcare facilities across the 274 wards of the state to bring healthcare services to the doorsteps of the people.
He said the ministry of primary healthcare and that of local government and chieftaincy affairs will provide support to the efforts of the council chairman to ensure that the services provided at the facility are optimal and meet the yearnings of the people, so as to improve maternal and child health services.
The commissioner called on the people of the community to take ownership of the facility and promised to establish a ward health development committee for the facility and to continue to provide all the necessary support to Chanchaga local government council in all the health facilities under it.
He equally appreciated the governor, Umaru Bago, for providing a conducive environment for the revitalization of primary healthcare services across the state and urging women to ensure that they make their children available for immunisation.
Earlier in his address, the Council Chairman of Chanchaga Local Government, Hon. Aminu Yakubu Ladan, said the gesture was part of the commitment of the council towards the revitalization of the health sector in the local government, particularly maternal and child health.
He disclosed that as part of the efforts of the council to improve the well-being of the people of the local government, it has provided motorised industrial boreholes at the Minna abattoir, improved the hygiene condition of the facility, provided scholarships to indigent health students, and also collaborated with health officials at the Minna General Hospital to provide services to some poor and vulnerable people while the council offset the cost monthly.
The chairman added that the Nyikangbe healthcare facility now has a scanning machine and some laboratory equipment with bed facilities, revealing that they have also engaged some indigenous doctors who will be attending to people three times a week.
He promised that the council would continue to seek the provision of good healthcare services for the people of the local government and solicited the support of the state government through the ministry of primary healthcare to provide more of such gestures to other parts of the local government area.
In his remarks, the state Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Hamidu Mu'azu Jantabo, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Abubakar Aliyu Mila, expressed delight over the gesture by the council chairman, saying the council had already taken the lead in actualizing the mandate of the governor to upgrade all primary healthcare facilities in the state.