NewStats: 3,261,206 , 8,173,387 topics. Date: Wednesday, 28 May 2025 at 02:49 PM 4x10k

FG To Take Over Salaries Of 28,000 Health Workers Affected By USAID Freeze – Health Minister, Pate.
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The freeze in billions of dollars in global funding for the United States’ health and education projects in countries of the world including Nigeria continues to dominate global discussions. There have been palpable fears on the continental scene that the decision of the Donald Trump presidency to halt the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will reverse the compounded gains achieved in the global fight and campaign against diseases and infections such as malaria, tuberculosis, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and its advanced stage, the Acquired Immuno-deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). On Channels Television’s Hard Copy programme, Prof Ali Pate, Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, speaks on Nigeria’s preparedness to manage the impact of America’s aid cut on interventions in the health sector. He also speaks on the fate of 28,000 Nigerian health workers previously paid by the aborted American programme.

What would you say the primary challenge has been with Nigeria’s health sector?

The fundamental issue is that we have not invested seriously in our health infrastructure, in our health human resources, and equipment. We have not come together as a nation to build a National Health System. The Federal Government had its parts, states had their part, and local governments too. Some pulled more than others. The government’s revenue, as a portion of our GDP, has been very low.

So, of the little that the government collects, it had prioritised health lower, education lower, but this president, in his Renewed Hope Agenda, had put human capital as a core and we have seen a deliberate effort to invest more in health and service delivery. We have begun to see the impact of those slowly happening but it will take time for a system that has spent years without the required infrastructure, equipment and human resources to supply chain consumables.

It’s a system and that system will take time to get to the point where people will see a much larger transformation which is possible. When folks think about the UK or the US Healthcare System where many of our compatriots go. Those systems spend a large chunk of their resources for health. The UK spends more than $4,000 per capita in health. Here, we’re talking about $120 per capita, total, of which public financing is about 30% of that. So, you can look at the disparity. The United States, for instance, about $4,000 per capita. Healthcare is not cheap. Quality healthcare is not cheap. You have to invest in it. We as a country had not invested in it and yet we had been asking for the highest quality health. The few elite afford it, they go out but domestically we have not invested.

Now, we have seen that change in the last 18 months with a deliberate effort to improve the investments and to allocate the Investments where it matters — the foundation, the primary healthcare, the higher-level health infrastructure, the cancer infrastructure that we’re rebuilding, the teaching hospitals, the equipment, the human resources, the expansion of the training, the regulatory oversight, the harmony in the sector and the production of the commodities that we need to deliver, whether it’s antibiotic. Can you believe that more than 70% of our drugs, we import with foreign exchange that we didn’t have? So, if we can flip it over time. 99% of our medical devices, we import them.

Now, if we flip that over time, that is not going to take place overnight but we have to be on that path. What we’re trying to do is to change a trajectory and we’re beginning to do that. First, it requires political will and we have seen it. The president unveiled the Renewal Investment Initiative and we saw 36 state governors the Federal Government and sign a contract.

We’ve seen deliberate efforts to mobilise resources to invest in health. Just last week, the Federal Executive Council approved almost a billion dollars in of financing for the programme. That is a significant resource that states will implement. It’s a programme for results that will deliver better but it will take time. We can have the health system that we desire.

Complaining on the sidelines and thinking that things will not change or things are so bad is not going to get us there. We are acting in that direction and I believe many leaders are keying into that because all the 36 state governors have now expressed interest to the Federal Government in this journey. Our private sector actors, the hospitals, the providers, and the pharmaceutical industry should also rise up. This will make our healthcare system serve Nigerians and potentially even serve other parts of our continent.

Our total health spend in Nigeria, the total health exposure: 30% is public, 70% is private. So, the component of overseas development assistance for health is not the largest chunk of our health expenditure.

How significant is overseas assistance?

those health workers are Nigerians. We have to find ways to transit them.

Our approach, long before the change in US policy has been towards increasing national ownership, increasing domestic resources, improving our healthcare value chain and producing what we use, strengthening our resilience through surveillance, laboratory systems so that we deal with infectious diseases. We never really absorbed ourselves of the responsibility for taking care of Nigerians who require government . Health is right and it has a value inherently and is key to the future prosperity of our country.

So, the pivot that the US government has met in a way found us where we had already been moving in that direction and it’s just about raising the additional resources to be able to cope and we are confident that Nigeria can be able to cope. It may not be able to buy the most expensive versions of the medications that the US dollars buy but with the resources that we have I believe that we can find those who have those medications, generic as they may be, but with the quality that is needed that we buy and distribute to our population and we want to safeguard the progress that has been made on HIV.

The electricity situation, for instance in the University College Hospital, Ibadan, has remained intractable. It’s over 100 days now and we’re still counting. This is a well-known hospital in darkness.

This has been a story for several years of accumulated debt to the Ibadan Disco. The hospital was disconnected and we stepped in to help the hospital The chief medical director, over the last three months, has done an incredibly good job of transiting to off-grid power, solarise many of the wards, theatres and others. He developed a mechanism whereby there are hours when the hospital uses diesel for theatres to operate so it’s not as if the hospital wasn’t functioning; it was functioning within certain bounds and using off-grid resources to power the hospital. I can show you the pictures of UCH at night three days ago with light; it’s not as if they are in darkness.

The UCH power was connected to the University of Ibadan and there are private entities within the university so the University College Hospital was paying for a bill of what it consumes as well as others including residences that are within that perimeter. So, disentangling that is necessary. How can the hospital bear the burden including residences of those who are not necessarily working in the hospital?

If you go to UCH, if you call the CMD, he will tell you the hospital functions, the theatres function. There are patients. I can show you live recordings of those of the hospital just three days ago.

In the 2025 budget, not only UCH but almost all our hospitals. We’re working through the Rural Electrification Agency to solarise them so that we use alternative power sources to power our facilities because the cost of diesel is encroaching on their internally generated revenue.

We may be a poor country but we are a capable country and we are determined to own up that responsibility. Now, if others step in and us, we appreciate it but we are not begging for it and we also will live within what we have but we have the responsibility on us as leaders to ensure that our population gets the care they need. The Federal government is going to do its part. For states, we expect that they will also step in because there are many things that happen at the state level on HIV, TB or malaria. There are health workers, 28,000 of them who were been paid through US government . While it has been appreciated, those health workers are Nigerians. We have to find ways to transit them.

https://www.channelstv.com/2025/02/15/fg-to-take-over-salaries-of-28000-health-workers-affected-by-usaid-freeze-health-minister-pate/

Tinubu, nah man you be. That's why I didn't vote for some inexperienced Agulu Yes Daddy. Nigeria's problems need a seasoned and experienced and astute politician. If Obi had won, his incompetence would have bankrupt the economy with blame game. Workers would have been owed several months salary as happened under Aregbesola in Osun. Even Obi himself couldnt pay doctors salaries for about 10months. Thank God no state is owing workers salary under Tinubu, not even LP gov, Otti.

This bill gates plant doing the bidding of his master's , where is Nigeria getting the money to pay 28 thousand CIA employees? That money is definitely going to come from Bill Gates I tell you so they can continue their war on Nigerian organic farmers

Good. President Tinubu is a good comionate Leader💯

SalamRushdie:
This bill gates plant doing the bidding of his master's , where is Nigeria getting the money to pay 28 thousand CIA employees? That money is definitely going to come from Bill Gates I tell you so they can continue their war on Nigerian organic farmers

I first read the nonsense, b4 I checked who wrote it .

Not surprised @ all, just had to put u on notice.

blacknp:
I first read the nonsense, b4 I checked who wrote it .

Not surprised @ all, just had to put u on notice.

Your IQ is a miserly 67 , you can't process this so rest , it's for Intelligent folks

Very funny.. let's wait, watch n see.

AmazingGenius:
FG To Take Over Salaries Of 28,000 Health Workers Affected By USAID Freeze – Health Minister, Pate.

The freeze in billions of dollars in global funding for the United States’ health and education projects in countries of the world including Nigeria continues to dominate global discussions. There have been palpable fears on the continental scene that the decision of the Donald Trump presidency to halt the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) will reverse the compounded gains achieved in the global fight and campaign against diseases and infections such as malaria, tuberculosis, Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and its advanced stage, the Acquired Immuno-deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). On Channels Television’s Hard Copy programme, Prof Ali Pate, Nigeria’s Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, speaks on Nigeria’s preparedness to manage the impact of America’s aid cut on interventions in the health sector. He also speaks on the fate of 28,000 Nigerian health workers previously paid by the aborted American programme.

What would you say the primary challenge has been with Nigeria’s health sector?

The fundamental issue is that we have not invested seriously in our health infrastructure, in our health human resources, and equipment. We have not come together as a nation to build a National Health System. The Federal Government had its parts, states had their part, and local governments too. Some pulled more than others. The government’s revenue, as a portion of our GDP, has been very low.

So, of the little that the government collects, it had prioritised health lower, education lower, but this president, in his Renewed Hope Agenda, had put human capital as a core and we have seen a deliberate effort to invest more in health and service delivery. We have begun to see the impact of those slowly happening but it will take time for a system that has spent years without the required infrastructure, equipment and human resources to supply chain consumables.

It’s a system and that system will take time to get to the point where people will see a much larger transformation which is possible. When folks think about the UK or the US Healthcare System where many of our compatriots go. Those systems spend a large chunk of their resources for health. The UK spends more than $4,000 per capita in health. Here, we’re talking about $120 per capita, total, of which public financing is about 30% of that. So, you can look at the disparity. The United States, for instance, about $4,000 per capita. Healthcare is not cheap. Quality healthcare is not cheap. You have to invest in it. We as a country had not invested in it and yet we had been asking for the highest quality health. The few elite afford it, they go out but domestically we have not invested.

Now, we have seen that change in the last 18 months with a deliberate effort to improve the investments and to allocate the Investments where it matters — the foundation, the primary healthcare, the higher-level health infrastructure, the cancer infrastructure that we’re rebuilding, the teaching hospitals, the equipment, the human resources, the expansion of the training, the regulatory oversight, the harmony in the sector and the production of the commodities that we need to deliver, whether it’s antibiotic. Can you believe that more than 70% of our drugs, we import with foreign exchange that we didn’t have? So, if we can flip it over time. 99% of our medical devices, we import them.

Now, if we flip that over time, that is not going to take place overnight but we have to be on that path. What we’re trying to do is to change a trajectory and we’re beginning to do that. First, it requires political will and we have seen it. The president unveiled the Renewal Investment Initiative and we saw 36 state governors the Federal Government and sign a contract.

We’ve seen deliberate efforts to mobilise resources to invest in health. Just last week, the Federal Executive Council approved almost a billion dollars in of financing for the programme. That is a significant resource that states will implement. It’s a programme for results that will deliver better but it will take time. We can have the health system that we desire.

Complaining on the sidelines and thinking that things will not change or things are so bad is not going to get us there. We are acting in that direction and I believe many leaders are keying into that because all the 36 state governors have now expressed interest to the Federal Government in this journey. Our private sector actors, the hospitals, the providers, and the pharmaceutical industry should also rise up. This will make our healthcare system serve Nigerians and potentially even serve other parts of our continent.

Our total health spend in Nigeria, the total health exposure: 30% is public, 70% is private. So, the component of overseas development assistance for health is not the largest chunk of our health expenditure.

How significant is overseas assistance?

those health workers are Nigerians. We have to find ways to transit them.

Our approach, long before the change in US policy has been towards increasing national ownership, increasing domestic resources, improving our healthcare value chain and producing what we use, strengthening our resilience through surveillance, laboratory systems so that we deal with infectious diseases. We never really absorbed ourselves of the responsibility for taking care of Nigerians who require government . Health is right and it has a value inherently and is key to the future prosperity of our country.

So, the pivot that the US government has met in a way found us where we had already been moving in that direction and it’s just about raising the additional resources to be able to cope and we are confident that Nigeria can be able to cope. It may not be able to buy the most expensive versions of the medications that the US dollars buy but with the resources that we have I believe that we can find those who have those medications, generic as they may be, but with the quality that is needed that we buy and distribute to our population and we want to safeguard the progress that has been made on HIV.

The electricity situation, for instance in the University College Hospital, Ibadan, has remained intractable. It’s over 100 days now and we’re still counting. This is a well-known hospital in darkness.

This has been a story for several years of accumulated debt to the Ibadan Disco. The hospital was disconnected and we stepped in to help the hospital The chief medical director, over the last three months, has done an incredibly good job of transiting to off-grid power, solarise many of the wards, theatres and others. He developed a mechanism whereby there are hours when the hospital uses diesel for theatres to operate so it’s not as if the hospital wasn’t functioning; it was functioning within certain bounds and using off-grid resources to power the hospital. I can show you the pictures of UCH at night three days ago with light; it’s not as if they are in darkness.

The UCH power was connected to the University of Ibadan and there are private entities within the university so the University College Hospital was paying for a bill of what it consumes as well as others including residences that are within that perimeter. So, disentangling that is necessary. How can the hospital bear the burden including residences of those who are not necessarily working in the hospital?

If you go to UCH, if you call the CMD, he will tell you the hospital functions, the theatres function. There are patients. I can show you live recordings of those of the hospital just three days ago.

In the 2025 budget, not only UCH but almost all our hospitals. We’re working through the Rural Electrification Agency to solarise them so that we use alternative power sources to power our facilities because the cost of diesel is encroaching on their internally generated revenue.

Source: https://naija247news.com/2025/02/15/fg-to-take-over-salaries-of-28000-health-workers-affected-by-usaid-freeze-health-minister-pate/

28,000 health workers indeed. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

28,000 health workers dey Nigeria, Nigeria come dey like this? They are inflating figures to accommodate looting. Where dem see 28,000 health workers?

Lies upon lies oooo

Hope they won't widen the tax net ×5 this time??

You have mental illness to think that the ruiner of Nigerian economy should be praised

Max24:
Tinubu, nah man you be. That's why I didn't vote for some inexperienced Agulu Yes Daddy. Nigeria's problems need a seasoned and experienced and astute politician. If Obi had won, his incompetence would have bankrupt the economy with blame game. Workers would have been owed several months salary as happened under Aregbesola in Osun. Even Obi himself couldnt pay doctors salaries for about 10months. Thank God no state is owing workers salary under Tinubu, not even LP gov, Otti.

ValarDoharis:
You have mental illness to think that the ruiner of Nigerian economy should be praised

Na mumu Dey worry you. Why not stick to the topic and name any state that is owing workers salaries under Tinubu as happened under his predecessors? Or is everything in your family about hunger?

Normal

A whole 28 thousands

More than workforce of some states

Type what you want to type without quoting the whole article abeg.

So you have money to pay 28000 workers

Yet allowed your CBN governor to retire 1000 staff still in their youthful age

COMRADES, 28,000 health workers? How? The total number of workers in USAid payroll globally is 10k, how come their number jumped up to 28k in Nigeria alone? Abeg Nigerian public office holders make una dey lie small small

SalamRushdie:
This bill gates plant doing the bidding of his master's , where is Nigeria getting the money to pay 28 thousand CIA employees? That money is definitely going to come from Bill Gates I tell you so they can continue their war on Nigerian organic farmers

You're dumb. You've been consuming genetically modified foods since many decades ago. From your banana, plantain, yams, tomatoes, oranges, etc.

All those idiots saying countries won’t bother. Shey e don Dey clear for una eyes Abi.

Omo! Which kind money US get. Dey have been spoon feeding all countries for centuries back to back and yet this idiots are ungrateful. US deserved to be worshiped. Every country benefit from US in one way or the other including China and Russia. US is indeed a very good country. Ntorr to all countries especially Africa. For this trump 4years hunger for fire all countries FG. Next time they should see the importance of the US. No world power has ever been so helpful as the US.

Let’s face the truth here, the world can’t survive without the USAID that’s the gospel truth. Millions of people all over the world will lose their jobs. And their government can’t accommodate them. China, Russia and Europe ed together can’t carry the responsibilities alone. Infact they wouldn’t even dare.

Trump just want to let the world know how important US is to the world bc not everybody knows this fact.

Max24:
Tinubu, nah man you be. That's why I didn't vote for some inexperienced Agulu Yes Daddy. Nigeria's problems need a seasoned and experienced and astute politician. If Obi had won, his incompetence would have bankrupt the economy with blame game. Workers would have been owed several months salary as happened under Aregbesola in Osun. Even Obi himself couldnt pay doctors salaries for about 10months. Thank God no state is owing workers salary under Tinubu, not even LP gov, Otti.

That's correct 💯

FG should also take over the sponsorship of boko haram.

Okay

If they can pay salaries of over 20,000 workers, why are there many unemployed graduates in the country

FCT still owes primary school teachers new minimum wage salary scheme.
1,000 CBN workers were laid off recently.
Up your game abeg

JASONjnr:
FG should also take over the sponsorship or boko haram.

Comedian

What I see here is just another avenue for the govt to cash out

Melagros:
COMRADES, 28,000 health workers? How? The total number of workers in USAid is 10k globally, how come their number jumped up to 28k? Abeg Nigerian public office holders make una dey lie small small

Food for thought! 🤔


You know how things work in Nigeria
Politicians will start adding names etc.

AmazingGenius:


https://www.channelstv.com/2025/02/15/fg-to-take-over-salaries-of-28000-health-workers-affected-by-usaid-freeze-health-minister-pate/

It's about time

False, pure deceit. How many federal government health workers do we have in the entire country?

OK ,




Princess Faith Chukwu

Acekidc4:
Good. President Tinubu is a good comionate Leader💯

If baba doesn't do it. In the next 10 year, 70% of out population will be on antiretroviral drugs. Aids go reach everybody like cool wind

these idiots still want PITY
they have been giving you aid for 60 years and you still want to be fed?

Thank God for Trump

At least we now know that the corrupt enterprise was also involved in funding Boko Haram as well as in creating the COVID SCAMdemic