WHO, UNICEF, Community Leaders Hail Gov Mbah’s Commitment to Primary Healthcare

…As Enugu records 80% spike in PHC visits, 88.9% rise in immunisation coverage

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…Mbah tasks community leaders on awareness, monitoring, and feedback

The World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and community leaders have commended the Governor Peter Mbah administration for its huge investment and commitment to primary healthcare in Enugu State.

This was even as the Executive Secretary of the Enugu State Primary Healthcare Development Agency (ENSPHDA), Dr. Ifeyinwa Ani-Osheku, revealed that the state had recorded an increase in visits to its Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) from 800,000 to 1.4 million, representing an 80 per cent increase, as well as an increase in Penta-3 immunisation coverage from 78.5 per cent to 88.9 per cent, surpassing the national target of 85 per cent.

They gave the commendations on the occasion of the combined 2026 Biannual Meeting and Supportive Supervisory Visit by Governor Mbah to Type 2 Primary Healthcare Centre, Ihe Ward, Nsukka Local Government Area of the state on Tuesday.

Speaking, the South East Zonal Coordinator of WHO Nigeria, Dr. Chukwumuanya Igbonekwu, described the governor’s continued supervisory visits to the state’s PHC facilities as a powerful catalyst for accountability, motivation, assessment of challenges and progress, and continuous improvement in service delivery.

“Therefore, WHO highly commends the Government of Enugu State for prioritising health sector investments and fostering an enabling environment for implementing key public health programmes,” he said, pledging WHO’s continued support to the administration’s efforts to build resilient health systems capable of addressing current and emerging health challenges.

On his part, the Chief of UNICEF Field Office in Enugu, Juliet Chiluwe, represented by the Health Logistics Consultant, Dr. Charles Abel, commended the governor for a “steadfast commitment to optimising primary healthcare service delivery across the state.”

“Routine field oversight of this nature is clear evidence of a leadership that prioritises the health, survival, and well-being of its citizens, particularly vulnerable women and children,” she stated, reaffirming UNICEF’s commitment to supporting the government.

Meanwhile, Governor Mbah, who had held separate interactive meetings with traditional rulers and women leaders of Nsukka LGA, said his administration intentionally invested heavily in building 260 PHCs across the 260 wards of the state to ensure that nobody was left behind.

He expressed satisfaction that the investments in the PHCs had paid off by helping to drastically cut down maternal mortality, insisting that the state targets zero maternal mortality as “no woman should die giving birth in any part of Enugu State.”

The governor charged the traditional rulers, women leaders, and other grassroots leaders to use their influence to create awareness, champion immunisation, antenatal and postnatal care, encourage subscription to universal healthcare coverage, and monitor service delivery at their PHCs, escalating observed gaps to the authorities.

“I have also listened to our elders. We are going to have the MRI, the CT scan, and all the radiological services at the State University of Medical and Applied Sciences (SUMAS) Teaching Hospital so that you do not have to travel to Enugu to get full healthcare services. This I guarantee you,” he assured.

The Executive Secretary of the ENSPHDA, Dr. Ani-Osheku, noted that primary healthcare had experienced an uncommon leap under the Mbah administration.

“We built 260 brand-new health centres, one in every ward of Enugu State. Not one community left behind.

“We added 3,380 hospital beds and 520 baby cots at the ward level, capacity this state had never seen in its primary health system.

“We recruited 2,250 health workers and placed doctors at the helm so that competence is no longer the privilege of the city alone.

“The share of our mothers delivering safely, in trained hands, leapt from 40.9 per cent to 59.3 per cent in just six months.

“When we came in, our people made 800,000 visits to our health centres in a year. Today they make over 1.4 million (80% increase) because we made the clinics worth walking into.

“We nearly tripled the malaria treatment reaching our people. We put our clinics on computers, cut the time our people wait for care by nearly 70 per cent, tripled the medicines on the shelves, and brought ultrasound scans to the wards,” she stated.

In their remarks, the Chairman of Nsukka LGA, Engr. Jude Asogwa; Chairman of the Enugu State chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Sunday Okafor; and the Commissioner for Health, Enugu State, Prof. George Ugwu, extolled Governor Mbah’s commitment to the health sector.

“So, as you are going back to Enugu, just have it at the back of your mind that you, our President, and all your lineup will be delivered in the 2027 general election,” Asogwa assured.