The federal government has listed some of the measures put in place to ensure that Nigeria recovers from the effects of COVID-19 pandemic.
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, made the measures known on Thursday at the 5th annual conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers, GOCOP, held at Sheraton Hotels, Ikeja, Lagos.
Represented by the Executive Director, National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, NPHCDA, Dr. Faisal Shuaib, Mustapha called on the media to begin the recovery and reconstruction efforts.
Speaking on the efforts by the government to ensure recovery and reconstruction in Nigeria following the effects of COVID-19, the SGF said one of the major steps was to focus on efforts to contain the spread of infection, minimize casualties and ensure that the nation’s clinical services could cope with the projected fatalities.
His statement reads in part:
“At this juncture, let me outline some of the measures we implemented for COVID-19 Pandemic Recovery and Reconstruction in Nigeria:
- At the peak of the pandemic, we focused our objective to contain the spread of infection, minimize casualties and ensure that our clinical services could cope with the projected fatalities.
“• Establishment of Sample Collection Centres in all LGAs: We tried to build a resilient health system that is sensitive to pick up infections early by encouraging the establishment of sample collection centers in all LGAs, ramping up sample collection to at least 500/week and establishing linkages to testing laboratories and clinical care centres.
- Disease Surveillance and Notification Officers (DSNOs) were intensively trained in order to strengthen the COVID-19 surveillance system at the district level.
- We heightened vigilance at our Points of Entry, particularly the airports, to minimize the risk of importation of new cases into the country. Our heightened Point of Entry surveillance includes health screening, testing negative to COVID-19 at least 72hrs before commencing the journey to Nigeria and a second test on the 7th day of arrival.
- Unlike many other countries, our deliberate policy ensured that Nigerians were not banned from visiting any country of their choice nor were foreign nationals banned from visiting Nigeria. Only 4 countries were designated as high-risk countries and passenger arriving from these countries would be required to be under supervised isolation for 7 days before proceeding to interact with the community. These measures ensured that critical skills and manpower from these restricted countries continue to fuel our economy while we ensure the safety of our population. Over 10,000 skilled workers from these countries have been processed through this mechanism in order to facilitate our economic recovery.
“• Repositioning NCDC to command national operations: The Nigeria Centre for Disease control has enhanced its capability to engage with the states and monitor the state of the pandemic. The Nigeria field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program (NFELTP) of the Federal Ministry of Health has served as the backbone of our national epidemic preparedness and response. It has developed a reservoir of Rapid-Response teams that have been deployed to save the situation in states where additional support was needed.
“• Harnessing existing capacities in emergency management for public health: The PSC effectively harnessed our capacity in emergency and disaster management to handle public security, logistics movement as well as provide mass-care to millions of vulnerable populations.
“• Coordination of epidemic and pandemic response systems: The PSC has recently developed a COVID-19 Pandemic Risk Alert-Levels System for our country, which both States and the Federal governments can use to effectively monitor and respond to COVID-19 and similar bio-security threats.
- Galvanizing private sector support for public health action: Realizing that government alone cannot fund healthcare and socio-economic development, the government of President Muhammadu Buhari relentlessly has been engaging the private sector in efforts at fully recovering from COVID-19 pandemic and the rebuilding of our country from the disruptions unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Pursuant to this, the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency is currently engaging the States to explore opportunities for partnering with the private sector to fast track COVID-19 vaccine coverage for Nigerians- towards attainment of herd immunity, which will lead to full opening of our economy and complete recovery from the pandemic.
“• Building back better health systems:
National oxygen plan: As part of our efforts to build back a better healthcare system, the federal government has approved the construction of 42 new oxygen plants and the repair of at least 18 such plants. When completed Nigeria will be approaching near self-sufficiency for oxygen which is critical not only for COVID-19 but for cases of childhood pneumonia and emergency and critical care units.
*National ambulance and emergency service plan: Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic the Federal Ministry of Health, leveraging on the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF), is swiftly rolling out national ambulance and emergency services- which will enhance our country’s ability to effectively respond to healthcare emergencies now and in the future.
“*Investment in research and vaccine development: We as a nation must make critical investments in scientific research and vaccine development. We should aim at manufacturing vaccines here in Nigeria and not depend on foreign countries for the meeting of our vaccines needs to respond to current and future epidemics and pandemics.
“• Economic stimulus measures/fiscal policies: Very early in the pandemic, the CBN introduced new measures on loans, moratorium and debt repayment:
*1 year extension of a moratorium on principal repayments for CBN intervention facilities;
*The reduction of the interest rate on intervention loans from 9% to 5%
*Strengthening of the Loan to Deposit ratio policy;
*In addition, a N50 billion target credit facility was floated for household and small and medium enterprises to help re-grow the economy
*Additional N100 billion intervention fund on healthcare loans to pharmaceutical companies and healthcare practitioners intending to expand/build capacity;
*N1 trillion in loans to boost local manufacturing and production across critical sectors;
*The crude oil benchmark price was also reduced from a USD 57 to USD 30;
*The CBN pledged to pump 1.1 trillion NGN into critical sectors of the economy.
*Commencement of a 5-month repayment moratorium for all TraderMoni, MarketMoni and FarmerMoni loans; and
*Provision of credit assistance for the health industry to meet the potential increase in demand in health services and products,
*These economic measures and fiscal policies that our government adopted facilitated our exit from COVID-19 induced recession earlier than predicted by world-class Economists- which was another big feather on the cap of our managerial sagacity in holistically responding to the pandemic!”
