The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) on Thursday launched free delivery kits for all pregnant women who enroll in the health insurance scheme of the FCT.
FCTA also distributed free delivery kits to vulnerable pregnant women across the six area councils during the programme organised by the FCT Health Insurance Scheme (FHIS) in collaboration with USAID.
The launch held in collaboration with the United States
Agency for International Development on Thursday in Abuja, is one of the
efforts of the administration to reduce maternal and child mortality in the
territory.
Speaking, the Minister of State for FCT, Dr Mariya Mahmoud
said, the administration will extend the health insurance coverage to the
formal and informal sectors.
Mahmoud, who was represented by her Chief of Staff, Dr
Abdullahi Kauran-Mata, noted that the insurance scheme will ensure every
resident has access to quality healthcare services without any financial shock.
She warned the Health Maintenance Organisations against
delays in the releasing funds and for other services to hospitals.
“What this means is that funds are now available that will
enable everyone on the scheme to have access to quality healthcare services
without any financial shock,” she said.
The Mandate Secretary of the FCT Health Services and
Environment Secretariat, Dr Adedolapo Fasawe stated that health insurance is a
priority for the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike.
Fasawe said the dedication to the health insurance scheme by
the Minister aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s renewed hope agenda, which
emphasises the administration’s commitment to ensuring that no pregnant woman
dies due to childbirth.
“Health insured is health assured. It is an abomination for
any pregnant woman to die due to childbirth complications. It is not only
during delivery that women have complications, at times it occurs after
delivery. It has been documented that there are post-natal infections that
these pregnant women have that they don’t treat and these infections can lead
to death.
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“Now the insurance scheme covers antenatal care of the
pregnant woman and it covers them during delivery. During delivery, we have
added an innovation- the safe delivery kit, having realised that there are many
women who go to Traditional Birth Attendants and these packs here are
absolutely sterilised and the things inside protect the mother, the child and
the caregiver.
“The essence of this is to encourage pregnant women to
register for health insurance, this pack ordinarily would cost about N50,000
and the normal practice before now is when you come for delivery, they would
list everything in here and ask you to go and buy them, but now we are giving
it out for free once you are registered on our health insurance scheme,” she
explained.
The Mandate Secretary noted that every pregnant woman in the
FCT who cannot afford to pay for health insurance will be registered under the
vulnerable group for free.
“Already in Abuja, antenatal care is free of charge,
delivery is not free, but the essence of today is to let people know that even
if you cannot afford to pay for health insurance, that would be taken care of,
we will register you for free, even the baby would be taken care of for a year
under the health insurance scheme,” she added.
In her goodwill message, the FCT State Director of the USAID
Integrated Health Programme, Dr Frances-Lois Adewumi pledged the agency’s
commitment in supporting the FCT in maternal and child care.
She said with a premium payment of N13,500 yearly, every
resident can have access to good quality services under the scheme.
The Director of FHIS, Dr Ahmed Danfulani mentioned that the
scheme was launched in 2009 with the goal of improving the health of FCT
residents through the provision of affordable, accessible and quality
healthcare services.
“To date, we have enrolled over 160,000 beneficiaries from
the formal and informal sector as well as vulnerable persons like pregnant
women, the elderly and the indigents. All of our beneficiaries can access
quality healthcare services from over 200 public and private healthcare
facilities across the six area councils,” he said.
On her part, the Mandate Secretary, Women Affairs of the
FCTA, Mrs Adebayo Benjamins-Laniyi said the renewed hope initiative of the
First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu is to ensure that all women in the 62 wards of the
FCT are reached with health services.
She also noted that the ministers in the FCT Wike are
committed to the renewed hope agenda of President Tinubu on universal health
coverage.
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