ABIA RESIDENTS TASKED TO TAKE OWNERSHIP OF PHCs IN THEIR DOMAIN

Abia residents have been advised to take ownership and protect all Primary Healthcare Centres in the communities from vandals.

The Commissioner for Health in the state Professor Enoch Ogbonnaya Uche, gave the charge at the Umuahia North LGA headquarters during the inauguration of the Strategic Community Health Oversight Team (SCHOT) for Umuahia North Local Government Area.

The Commissioner explained that Governor Alex Otti’s administration has prioritised healthcare through the construction, renovation, equipping and functionalisation of facilities across the state, noting that the success of the ongoing healthcare transformations depend on active community participation.

According to him, healthcare is beyond constructing buildings, and noted that “a health facility is only important and useful if we can power the offering of healthcare service delivery to the people in that catchment.”

He further disclosed that Abia now has 277 PHCs across 184 wards, comprising 200 facilities under Project Ekweme and 77 renovated through the World Bank Impact Project, with 151 already functionalised and about 70 others ready for equipment or functionalisation.

The Commissioner also revealed that utilisation of government health facilities had increased significantly, from about 219,000 people in 2023 to 467,000 in 2024 and approximately one million and sixty-two in 2025. He attributed the growth to improved availability and quality of healthcare services, noting that “as more facilities become ready, more people are going to those facilities.”

He charged the newly inaugurated community oversight teams to monitor healthcare facilities, ensure the presence of health workers, protect equipment and report challenges through the appropriate channels.

Prof. Uche also urged community leaders to sensitise residents on government’s healthcare financing programmes, particularly the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund, which provides free healthcare for registered pregnant and nursing mothers, children under five and persons aged 70 and above.

He further highlighted the state’s formal-sector health insurance scheme, which provides highly subsidised healthcare for civil servants and their immediate families, while disclosing the establishment of the Abia Healthcare Endowment Fund by Abians in the United States to support health insurance coverage for vulnerable residents.

Also speaking, the Abia State Consultant on Strategic Community Health Oversight, Prof. Kanu Enyinnaya Nkanginieme, said the initiative was designed to address the twin challenges of poor absorptive capacity and poor utilisation of resources, which had hindered development in the state.

He said the community leaders were selected because they were elected representatives with the responsibility to ensure that resources deployed to their communities were used judiciously.

Prof. Nkanginieme explained that the oversight teams would work with community health and education committees, women and youth leaders, the local government administration and the Ministry of Health to identify needs, monitor facilities and promote long-term planning and urged community leaders to promote enrolment in health insurance schemes and support school health programmes by linking primary schools with nearby PHCs, stressing that the initiative was about creating “emotional ownership” and a structured partnership between communities and government.

Responding, President-Generals of communities, including Chief Onwuasoanya Shedrack of Ameke Afaranta Ibeku and Mr. Okechukwu Nkemka of Isingwu, thanked the Commissioner and his team for the enlightenment and pledged to take the messages to their respective communities, while assuring the administration of their support and commitment to the healthcare transformation agenda.

The highpoint of the event was the formal inauguration of President-Generals from communities in Umuahia North LGA as members of the Strategic Community Health Oversight Team.