Ekiti To Build 177 Healthcare Centres

 

Ekiti State Government will build 177 healthcare centres across the State, the Governor of the State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi has said.

He stated this during a town hall meetings with the citizens of the state in the three senatorial districts – North, South and Central on the 2021 Budget.

The communities through their leaders presented their lists of priorities to the governor at the town hall meetings, which held in Ikole, Ikere and Ado-Ekiti.

The governor told the communities that the State Government would establish at least one health facility in each of the 177 political wards of the state.

He assured the people of his administration’s commitment to all-round development of the state with particular focus on the health sector as it commenced activities marking its second anniversary on Monday.

“The 2021 budget will focus more on healthcare delivery. The budget is going to be more health compliant than any other thing, you will witness in 2021, a comprehensive completion of rehabilitation of all our General Hospitals in the state.

“You will recall that I started the reconstruction and rehabilitation of General Hospitals, State Specialist Hospitals during my first term in office, some of that work was not completed, unfortunately the government that took over left them at the point we got to and some of the works that we’ve done in those hospitals have even deteriorated. So we need to start from scratch in many cases and no local government would lose out in the process,” Fayemi explained.

He added that the government was irrevocably committed to participatory and all-inclusive government and budgeting.

“The purpose of the meeting is to interact with the representative of various towns and communities to articulate the needs of the communities for inclusion in the 2021 annual budget.

“This town hall meeting, which is in consonance with our agenda of good governance, is in fulfilment of the requirement of our government and requirement of our budget preparation.

“It also conforms with the objectives of open government partnership which I recently inaugurated in Ekiti state. It is heartwarming to note that Ekiti State is the first state in the South West to subscribe to the open government partnership.

“The import is clearly to demonstrate that good governance cannot happen if we did not listen to the genuine yearnings of our grassroots and it is our duty to promote accountability and transparency in our dear state.”

Governor Fayemi further assured the people of the state that inadequate resources would not hinder his government from delivering on his electoral promises.

The governor reviewed the performance of the 2020 Budget and noted that the budget of N124.724 million had to be slashed due to global outbreak of coronavirus pandemic to N91 billion.

He said this was done to meet the state’s economic reality which now accorded priority to critical sectors of the state, which included healthcare delivery, agricultural and rural development and infrastructure development in response to the pandemic and to reposition the economy of the state.

While promising the communities that their demands would be addressed and the basic one included into the budget, Fayemi assured the people that water rehabilitation initiative which had so far covered Ero and Egbe Dams would be extended to Itapaji dam in 2021 to support the agriculture processing zone that cut across the three senatorial districts.

He also promised to take the community rural project more serious while preparing the 2021 budget adding that government had expanded the scope of the community and rural development so as to increase government presence in all the communities.

He used the opportunity to remind the people that the health insurance scheme had commenced and the most vulnerable people should avail themselves of the opportunity by keying into it.

The governor further promised the people that his government would not only embark on aggressive personnel recruitment drive in all the health facilities but would also ensure that such facilities were well equipped for effective service delivery.

“And as you may be aware, our health insurance scheme has started, I do not think all of our people are utilizing this effort yet, maybe on our part, we need to do more sensitization.

“We need to alert our people that health insurance is now available at least for the most vulnerable segment of our population and this is our way of ensuring we continue with our free healthcare programme for those that are entitled to this in our state.

“We would put personnel there, we would ensure there is electricity there, we would ensure there is water there and ensure that there are drugs at any point in time that you visit that one primary health centre in our wards. We are also recruiting more health personnel at the primary healthcare level as well as well as the secondary healthcare level to attend to the yearnings of our people.”

Earlier, the Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Mr Femi Ajayi, noted that the approach of community participation in budget preparation has stimulated the confidence of the people in the government.

The commissioner said further that the meeting would afford the grassroots people opportunity to interact with the governor and present the needs of their community for consideration in the annual budget.