The Kwara State Primary Health Care Development Agency has boosted the 193 Primary Health Centers within the state, with N887,800,000 drawn from the World Bank utilisation funds.

Arewa PUNCH findings revealed this much, through an information contained in the update on the funds utilisation of the World Bank Immunisation Plus and Malaria Progress by Accelerating Coverage and Transforming Services Project report signed on Monday by

Alade Opeyemi, Press Secretary of KWSPHCDA.

According to the statement, “This followed the disbursement of funds after the development of investment plans by each benefitting Primary Health Care Center across the state, based on the needs assessment carried out before commencement of the project.

“Each benefitting PHC in the state received a total of N4.6m in the World Bank-assisted project to upgrade their facilities and purchase equipment that will strengthen basic healthcare services at the grassroots.

“We are excited to report that our PHCs have commenced the execution of the IMPACTS project with facility upgrades, purchase of equipment, and other items as spelt out in their various investment plan and needs assessment.

“Some of the items already purchased include: laboratory equipment in 193 PHCs; 30 ultrasound scan machines; 73 outreach tricycles; 186 outreach motorcycles; 186 desktop computers; and also, 72 boreholes have been sunk,” the press statement noted.

It added, “Based on their investment plans approved by the World Bank, these PHCs would also begin some minor renovation to improve the PHCs to further meet basic minimum standards. The funds were sent directly to the accounts of each PHC. What the PHCs do with their funds vary and are based on their needs as captured in their investment plans.

“The state had qualified for the World Bank IMPACTS programme on account of its investments in the basic healthcare sector, meeting some minimum criteria as well as payment of a state counterpart funds.

“Kwara State, which had also recently won the National award as the state best in primary healthcare in the entire central Nigeria, continues to improve peoples' confidence in the health system. This is evidenced by the total number of deliveries that doubled in 2023 compared to 2020, just as 422,631 women attended antenatal in our hospitals compared to the 94,276 in the year 2020 based on the information from the DHIS2 platform,” the Opeyemi statement maintained.

It stressed that, “The World Bank IMPACTS project would continue to be implemented alongside several state interventions as well as other projects like the Basic Health Care Provision Funds (BHCPF) to reduce infant, maternal mortality, and improve PHC services in the state, KWSPHCDA.”