Stakeholders in Nigeria’s health sector have warned that persistent insecurity, an acute shortage of healthcare workers, inadequate funding and weak constitutional provisions for healthcare are major obstacles to achieving Universal Health Coverage in the country.
The stakeholders made the observation on Saturday during the 4th Annual Scientific Conference of the College of Health Sciences, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS), themed: “Universal Health Coverage in Nigeria: Overcoming Access and Workforce Gap in the Face of Insecurity.”
They stressed that unless the challenges are urgently addressed through sustained investment, stronger policies and improved security, millions of Nigerians, particularly those in rural and conflict-affected communities, would continue to face limited access to quality healthcare.
Speaking at the conference, Sokoto State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Faruk Abubakar, disclosed that the state government had introduced a two-year compulsory service policy for health professionals trained on state scholarships to bridge the widening manpower gap.
He revealed that the distribution of health workers across the state remained uneven.
