Nigeria to name and shame looters of health funds

The Minister of Health, Isaac Adewole said those who mismanaged the funds of the Ministry in the past will be brought to book and thoroughly dealt with.

“Those who mismanaged our funds in the past have been asked to refund and some of them will be in court very soon.”

He made this statement in Abuja at the Town Hall Meeting. According to Adewole, the Ministry is towing the steps of Mr President, Muhammadu Buhari, by naming and shaming those mismanaging funds.

Adewole said: “We are using the profile of the leadership of this country. Mr. President’s body language is commitment and dedication to ensure that within the health sector we ensure accountability and transparency.”

“We want to reduce inefficiency in the health sector which has been put at about 40%. We want to ensure that we get value for money and any donor money which comes into this country, we want to use it well.”

Adewole also said the Ministry secured a $500m loan from World Bank to address maternal and child death. In line with this, the Ministry partnered with States and efforts are being made to save money to promote primary health care within the country.

Also, the Ministry will be sending out agents to review how the money contributed is being used. If the Ministry is not satisfied with the performance of the States grants will not be released to the States involved.

Adewole also said that the ministry is handling nutritional emergency in Borno State as a team has been sent down there to take care of it. The Minister said Nigerians are fond of delaying going to Health Centers when they are ill until their condition deteriorates.

“750,000 children in Borno State are in trouble, 5,000 Nigerians are being screened for diabetes and hypertension, 40,000 for hepatitis, 20,000 for cervical cancer, 20,000 for breast cancer and the purpose of this is to improve the health seeking behaviors of Nigerians.”

He also made known his plans to review medical tourism within the country. According to him, Nigeria loses 1 billion dollars annually because people leave the country to get medical attention abroad. He said his plan is to stop people from going abroad for health care and make foreigners come to Nigeria for health care as well as provisions are being made to upgrade seven medical centers to handle emergency cases and cancer.