In an effort to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the federal government has inaugurated a state-of-the-art 100-bed multipurpose hospital in Abia State.
The hospital located at Etitiala Autonomous Community in Ugwunagbo Local Government Area of the state was inaugurated by the Governor of Abia, Alex Otti, who hailed President Bola Tinubu for completing the project inherited from the Muhammad Buhari administration.
This well-equipped hospital exemplifies President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s commitment to providing quality healthcare services in Abia State, aiming to save lives and enhance the health and well-being of mothers and children in Ugwunagbo LGA and beyond.
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At the inauguration ceremony it was made known that the health facility which was initially conceived as SDG Mother and Child Hospital has now been renamed SDG Multi-purpose Hospital as it would provide health services to all.
Otti assured FG that the state government would take over the management of the hospital and run the health facility efficiently.
The governor pledged to provide 24-hour security, additional land for the building of doctors’ quarters, and the establishment of a facility management team to maintain high standards.
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He noted that just like the FG, his administration in Abia has equally placed a high premium on healthcare which is included in the strategic agenda being implemented in the state.
Otti said that the goal of his administration for the health sector is in alignment with the federal government’s Sustainable Development Goal 3, which aims to reduce maternal mortality to 70 per 1,000 live births by 2030.
While referencing the 2001 Abuja Declaration, in which Nigeria and other African countries pledged to allocate at least 15 per cent of their budgets to healthcare, Otti stated that Abia State’s 2024 budget met the target.
He said: “The jury is still out as to how many of those countries that adopted that resolution has complied. I’m happy to report that current 2024 budget of the Abia State government which we are half way in implementing, allocated 15 percent of the budget to healthcare.”
Otti reiterated that “healthcare occupies a major position in our strategy as a government”, adding that with the ongoing improvements in the health sector, infant and maternal mortality rates would tumble down in Abia.
“It is interesting to hear from Her Excellency (Princes Adefuliren) that our maternal mortality rate has reduced from 1,047 that it used to be in 2020 to 531 in 2022.
“And if I were to quote her, she says it has gone (further) down to 136 presently; that means we are doing well but we’re not there yet we still have a long way to go but we have moved,” the governor said.
He noted that the figures for infant and maternal rates had been fluctuating in Abia since 2016 by the time the result of the next survey would be out “we will be getting downward to actually less than 80”.
Otti built his optimism for improvement on the basis that his government “is very deliberate and intentional and focused on healthcare delivery”.
He said that the planned comprehensive medical village, initiated by his administration, was designed to curb medical tourism, which costs Nigerians between $1.6 billion and $2 billion annually.
“Our goal is that by the time we finish with our medical village, at least 10 percent of $2 billion will be spent in our state,” he said.
100-bed Multipurpose Hospital in Abia
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on SDGs and former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Princess Adejoke Adefuliren, noted that the completion and inauguration of the hospital was a dream come true.
Adefuliren said that the health facility has come to fulfil the dream of every mother (within the surrounding communities) for a safe delivery in a healthy and conducive environment.
The SSA on SDGs said that similar projects had been executed across the 36 states of the federation under the Sustainable Development Goals to promote healthcare and standard of living.
She noted that the project was in line with the renewed hope agenda of the President Tinubu’s administration with its commitment to prioritising key interventions that have multiplier effects on reducing multidimensional poverty in Nigeria.
