Calderwood said “the value of the project is $50 million Canadian dollars” equivalent to US $45 million or about N7 billion. The Canadian envoy explained that the project will focus on “maternal,  newborn and child health reflected in our development cooperation programming in Nigeria. “These include our major contributions towards polio eradication. I am pleased with the great reduction in the number of new cases of polio in Nigeria in recent years and hope to see the disease completely eradicated from the country at an early date,” he said.

Calderwood informed journalists that a policy framework has been put in place to ensure transparency and accountability in the implementation of the project.

He stated that WHO as the implementing agency will ensure judicious use of the funds to avoid cases of mismanagement of funds that have followed donors’ funding in Nigeria’s healthcare sector.

WHO Country Director to Nigeria, Dr Gama Vaz said the organisation and implementing partners will “continue to seek support and involvement of key development policy and strategies.”

Vaz said the project  focus on healthcare workforce capacity will formulate modalities to ensure efficient healthcare service delivery in Nigeria.

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Mr Linus Awute, called for the need for further cooperation among stakeholders to scale up maternal,  newborn health system in the country.

Awute told the gathering that “conditions mutual accountability is created for optimum results from the projects.”

Source:Leadership Online 26th Nov 2014 By Victor Okeke