The World Health Organisation (WHO), has vowed to explore avenues to continue to support Nigeria to build on the successes it has achieved in the health sector over the years.
The new WHO Representative to Nigeria, Dr. Walter Kazadi Mulombo, stated this when he visited the Minister of Health, Osagie Ehanire, in Abuja, Monday.
He commended Nigeria for the arrangement put in place at the airport and the protocol put in place at the hotels in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Dr. Mulombo said that Nigeria’s experts who are handling COVID-19 protocols gave him the impression that they surely know what they were doing.
He congratulated Nigeria, especially the Minister of Health, for the efforts and the leadership provided to make Nigeria certified polio-free.
“It is a very big achievement and it paves the way for the whole continent to be certified polio-free; in that we are very proud of Nigeria,” he said.
According to the WHO Country Representative, even though COVID-19 is a storm, “the advantage and lessons learnt from managing Nigeria to a Polio-free country can be built upon to try and address issues regarding the COVID-19 and other health emergencies.”
Earlier, the Minister of Health, Ehanire, said that Nigeria was pleased to have the new WHO Representative on board, stressing that: “we will count on his experience to continue to calibrate on our response as he is coming right in the middle of the storm.”
He commended the UN bodies for coming together to create what he described as “One Basket Fund.”
Ehanire therefore, called on the new WHO Country Representative to get interested in the fund, because, according to him, the Fund significantly boosted the resources and the assets which Nigeria has to respond.
“The first of which was the $2 million consignment that came into Nigeria to kick start everything that Nigeria has to do, just as the other consignments begin to roll in,” the Minister said.
