Senate President, Bukola Saraki at the weekend solicited the support of the international financial institutions in reduction of maternal and infant mortality.
Hosting a strategic breakfast meeting in honour of the World Bank Group led by Ms Nicole Klingen and the Wellbeing Foundation Africa (WBFA) headed by his wife, Mrs. Toyin Saraki, he said all avenues to improve on provision of facilities, manpower and service delivery in the crucial sector should be explored.
In her own speech at the occasion, Mrs Saraki who is President of WBFA called on the Federal Government to increase budgetary allocation to the health sector to help fight the alarming rate of maternal and infant mortality in the country.
She decried a situation where an estimated 900,000 women and children still die annually in the country from preventable diseases.
“Many newborns, children, adolescents, and women in Nigeria still die from preventable conditions every year, and far too few have reliable access to quality health services.
“To address this, it is imperative that increased focus be placed on client-held personal health records – which will facilitate the much needed accountability in the health care system as enshrined the joint World Health Organization (WHO) and World Bank Group ‘Roadmap for Measurement and Accountability in Health’ guidelines; the invaluable role of midwives; and the critical need for increased access to universal health coverage, “ she said.
On her part, the leader of the World Bank Group, Ms. Nicole Klingen, commended Mrs. Saraki for the efforts of the WBFA aimed at ameliorating the scourge of maternal and infant morality in the country.
Klingen stated that part of the objectives of the World Bank Group is to ensure sustainable health care delivery in Nigeria and Africa at large.
She called on governments at all levels to complement the efforts of other stakeholders in the sector aimed at ensuring sustainable medical attention as at when due most especially to the vulnerable.
