PharmAccess Foundation alongside the Delta State Contributory Health Commission hosted the Access to Finance Impact Evaluation Report Dissemination themed: “Primary Healthcare Revitalization via Public Private Partnership”, on Thursday, 1st of September 2022 at Transcorp Hilton, Abuja.

The Access-to-finance program is a Public Private Partnership (PPP) initiative that was originally conceptualized as a measure of providing expanded access to care for the fast-growing Delta state health insurance scheme with an enrolled population of over 1.09 million residents of Delta state.

The principal value of the program is access to quality care for people in the rural and hard-to-reach areas of Delta state through the revitalization of hitherto moribund and/or dysfunctional primary healthcare facilities within target communities.

The Director-General of the DSCHC, Dr. Ben Nkechika in his keynote speech, spoke on the success stories of the Access-to-finance facilities in various communities in Delta State. He added that ‘amidst a lot of hurdles and challenges, this program which seemed like an impossible mission at first has now become possible’.

Speaking on her welcome address, the Country Director, PharmAccess Nigeria, Mrs Njide Ndili, spoke on the significance of government and private sector collaborations in achieving UHC, adding that ‘The government can’t do all the work, especially post- COVID, where the resources have drastically diminished’.

Special thanks were awarded to the DSCHC and PharmAccess by the Director, Medical Credit Fund, Mr Uzodinma Osisiogu, for making the initiative a successful one. He added that ‘the vision is to expand and implement the A2F Program in other states in the Country’.

Also present at the event was the Chairman Senate committee on Health, Sen. Dr Ibrahim Oloriegbe, who praised the initiative and expressed that ‘after this, we hope that other states will be open to implementing this program, and that significant legislative reforms will be implemented to expand access to health financing so as to achieve UHC’.

Professor Nasir Sambo, Director-General, National Health Insurance Scheme, also spoke on PharmAccess’ cooperation with Delta state and other states as regards finding solutions for challenges in the health sector, saying the cooperation ‘will open up opportunities for more PPPs in the future’.

The initiative commenced in September 2019 with 15 primary health facilities spread across Delta state. As at the end of 2021, positive impact has been felt by more than 30,000 lives, across 50 communities, with over 180,000 patient encounters recorded.

Also present at the event were the President, Healthcare Foundation of Nigeria (HFN)- Dr Pamela Ajayi and the Representative to the Hon. minister of state for Health- Dr Onyinye Nwankwo.