Kwara awards N5bn contract for an upgrade of 70 PHCs facilities
The Kwara State Government has awarded contracts worth over five billion naira for facility upgrades across 70 Primary Health Care facilities in the three senatorial districts in the state, promoting them to Level 2 PHCs.
Professor Nusirat Elelu, the Executive Secretary of the Kwara State Primary Health Care Development Agency (KWHCDA), made this known during the contracts signing event held at the Agency.
According to her, the intervention will include infrastructural upgrade, solarisation, provision of staff quarters, potable water supply and supply of ultra-modern hospital equipment across all benefitting Primary Health Care facilities.
“The intervention is coming with the support of the World Bank supported Immunisation Plus and Malaria Progress by Accelerating Progress and Transforming Services (IMPACT) project.”
“It will make Primary Health Care facilities better positioned to provide quality and improved Primary Health Care services across the state. The overall objective is to make all the PHC facilities ‘fit for purpose’ since the PHC system is the first contact with the national health system”, the Executive Secretary said.
Prof. Elelu urged successful bidders to deliver an excellent job to justify the trust reposed in them while warning that any contractor found wanting would have his contract terminated immediately.
She noted that the contracts will be given very close supervision to ensure judicious use of the investment made in the project, pointing out that this is part of the efforts of the Kwara State Government to revitalise the PHC system in the state.
The Executive Secretary recalled that the State Government had earlier renovated 53 PHCs, while 9 PHCs are presently under renovation, stating that more facilities will still be renovated by the Kwara State Government soon.
“This is a further demonstration of the commitment of the administration of Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq to the Primary Health Care system. Similarly, some 1,005 Primary Health Care workers, including doctors, were recently recruited into the PHC system to ensure the availability of adequate human resources to man these facilities”, Prof. Elelu explained.
IMPACT Programme Manager, Dr Michael Oguntoye, said the contract is to be delivered within 3 months, and the State will not tolerate undue delay in the implementation of the project, adding that the PHCs upgrade is one out of the several interventions the state is benefitting from the IMPACT project, which is aimed at reducing maternal and child morbidity and mortality.
He added that the primary beneficiaries of the IMPACT project are under-five children and women, disclosing that the project interventions will also improve access to health services for all residents in the state.
Dr. Oguntoye said that IMPACT will also strengthen national monitoring and evaluation systems and contribute to demand generation and service quality improvement nationally.
Successful bidders attended the contract signing event, members of the Project Implementation Unit of the IMPACT project, Directors, and the media.
