The Nigeria Mission Director, United States Agency for International Development(USAID), Mr. Michael Harvey, Thursday said USAID had spent $ 89 million on the Targeted States High Impact Project (T-SHIP) in Sokoto and Bauchi states in six years.
This is just as Sokoto State Governor, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, said his administration would expedite action on the take-off of the community mid-wifery training programme and to develop Marshall plan for the training of up to 3000 community mid-wives in the state.
Harvey made the remark Thursday, on the occasion of the Targeted State Health Impact Project of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID-T-SHIP) end of project Dissemination Meeting that marked the end of a 5 -year partnership held at the Giginya Coral Hotel, Sokoto.
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He said out of the amount, $ 45 million was spent on T-SHIP project in Sokoto state from 2009 to 2015.
He disclosed that USAID spends $ 450 million every year on intervention proje ts in Nigeria which include T-SHIP, family planning, reproductive health, among others.
He said the T-SHIP project had impacted tremendously in reducing child and maternal mortality in Sokoto state.
He noted that despite the end of project dissemination of T-SHIP this month, USAID would partner with the state government to develop a new project for the benefit of the people.
Tambuwal stated that the state government had concluded arrangement to train 3,000 midwives to tackle health needs of the people and shore up the availability of health personel across the 23 local government areas of the state.
According to him, the move was part of his administration’s efforts to reduce maternal and child mortality in the state.
“In Sokoto, we face the challenges of human resources and access to health services supplies. This has in turn resulted in high maternal and infant morbidity and mortality, low immunization coverage, low antenatal attendance and high home deliveries.
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“So, this administration will train 3,000 midwives in the short term to tackle the ugly trend,”Tambuwal said.
