The Honourable Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare Dr Iziaq Adekunle Salako has stated that the funding of regulatory bodies under the Ministry is a testament of the special interest President Bola Ahmed Tinubu accorded the Health Sector.
Dr Salako revealed during the continuation of his familiarization visits and assessment of facilities at the Health Records Officerrs' Registration Board of Nigeria and, Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria, both located in Abuja, Federal Capital City.
While highlighting the crucial and critical role of Medical Laboratory and Health records in Nigeria's healthcare delivery system, the Honourable Minister emphasized the imperative of providing effective and efficient services to Nigerians to justify government's funding.Meanwhile, in the spirit of proactive thinking, Dr. Salako urged and admonished the management of the regulatory bodies to deploy innovative means of generating revenue for self sustainability.
"What happened during the previous administration is a signal to where the future lies", he pointed out."You know before this administration took over, all regulatory bodies were debudgeted. You were asked to go and fend for yourself. But because of the high priority that Mr. President attached to healthcare sector, he decided to exempt regulatory bodies within the Healthcare Sector. Let me use this opportunity to join you to thank Mr. President who restored your funding", the Honourable Minister asserted.
For emphasis and clarity, he said "All over the world, regulatory bodies are not funded by government, because we believe you have the capacity to be able to generate revenue depending on how ingenious and innovative you are. When you register your practitioners, I am sure you collect some fees....."During an interactive session with the management of the two regulatory bodies; Dr. Salako observed and commended their digitalization processes.
Moving forward on expansion and digital innovation, Dr. Salako admonished the two regulatory agencies to embarace and key into a planned robust digitalization program of the Ministry.
The objective, he stated, is to expand the penetration of digitalization in the management of hospital services, records, pharmacy, Laboratory and, all the various departments. "This will also aggregate the information received from the facilities into database that can support planning, decisions making and also be used by International bodies and partners across the world to enter the space of the health sector in Nigeria"; the Honourable Minister explained.
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In their separate welcome addresses, the Registrars/CEOs, Health Records Officers' Registration Board of Nigeria, Alhaji Babagana Mustapha and his counterpart, Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria, Professor Tosan Erhabor, expressed positive optimism and outcomes on the Honorable Minister's visit, as they hoped their challenges would be addressed.
Alaba Balogun
Deputy Director Information and Public Relations
19/1/2025.
