Why Ministry of Health Launched a Sector-Wide Approach, SWAp, to Boosting Healthcare By Foster Obi

Discussants at the media engagement on Wednesday. 5th from left is Dr Mukhtar Muhammad, Ministerial Oversight Committee Secretary, while 6th is Jamilah Mohammed-Jantabo, the KMC lead.

"This management approach will ensure that all Nigerians have access to quality healthcare services despite their location, education, or economic status."

Last Wednesday at the Lagos Continental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare explained in detail to the media, the recently launched Sector-Wide approach (SWAp) by the Ministry in collaboration with State Ministries of Health, Development Partners, and Stakeholders. 

SWAp is designed to accelerate the transformation of Nigeria's health sector. 

According to the Ministry, this management approach will ensure that all Nigerians have access to quality healthcare services despite their location, education, or economic status.

A recent media engagement by the Ministry established that Nigeria can deliver great health for its people, and everyone within the country if the right approach is adopted.

However, certain limitations have prevented this from happening.

Despite substantial investment, the health sector has struggled with inadequate financing, limited human resources, poor data collection, insufficient infrastructure, and fragmented governance. it has been established that countries with less spending ability and GDP have better outcomes than Nigeria.

While limited human resources to serve the population is a challenge, data collection is not comprehensive nor credible and is not used for decision-making.

Limited healthcare infrastructure and poor maintenance culture. For instance, here, we operate 0.5 beds per 1000 people as opposed to WHO's 4 in its guidelines, and 50% of x-ray equipment in government hospitals is not working.

Here we experience complex and unintegrated supply chains causing procurement inefficiencies inefficiencies and low stocks.

Hyper-fragmentation, discoordination across the different levels of government, various government, and development partners

Regulation is often fragmented, predatory, and enforcement/implementation is ineffective.

SWAp, however, is a coordinated management effort designed to overcome the fragmentation and inefficiencies that have plagued Nigeria's health sector over the years.

The Ministry hopes that by 2027, through SWAp, it will harness the efforts of local governments, the governance and execution of strengths of states, and its policy stewardship to create a unified, transparent, and accountable health sector that operates as a coordinated unit across all levels, alongside the development partners.

Through SWAp, the Ministry vows to increase local production capacity by ensuring that Nigeria can locally produce critical health products such as mRNA vaccines, bed-nets, and select therapeutics, creating jobs and ensuring a reliable supply of essential medicines. 

Also to improve response to health threats. Through this, Nigeria will consistently achieve the 7-1-7 targets for health threat management, ensuring rapid detection and response to health emergencies, thereby safeguarding the public health resilience of Nigeria.

The Ministry insists that through SWAp, data will be applied more in decision-making. Health data will be credible, accessible, and used by both the public and private sectors to better understand the health needs of Nigerians and guide policy decisions.

Again, every Nigerian, regardless of their economic status or location, will have access to life-saving, high-quality care reflecting the fundamental goals of the SWAp initiative and raising overall productivity and quality of lives of Nigerians.