The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) and the Nigerian Centre for Diseases Control (NCDC) has signed N3.7 billion Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the World Bank COVID-19 response support to states and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The MoU was jointly signed by the Chairman of the NGF, Dr Kayode Fayemi and Director General of NCDC, Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu.
According to Dr. Ihekweazu, each of the 36 states and Abuja will receive N100 million from the fund, which would be paid directly to a dedicated account of each state government, after meeting the necessary requirements.
The fund, he added: “Is to prevent, detect, and response to threat posed by COVID-19 at the state-level in Nigeria.”
The DG disclosed that since last year the centre had decided to focus on the development of health facilities at the state level.
“Even before this outbreak our strategic direction in NCDC was to support the state to build health facilities.
“We did not know where we will get the resources from and we did not know we will be confronted with an outbreak of this extent,” he explained.
He added that with the outbreak of coronavirus, there is the need to invest in the nation’s health sector, not just at the federal level but at both states and even local government levels.
Ihekweazu pledged to accelerate the process of ensuring that states access the fund to make sure that they respond to COVID-19 outbreak.
NGF Chairman, Governor Fayemi believed that the fund would be of great assistance to the states in combatting the coronavirus pandemic.
By Onyekachi Eze,
New Telegraph