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The Guild of Medical Directors (GMD) has urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to publish a list of beneficiaries that benefited from its N100 billion Health Sector Intervention Fund (HSIF).
The National President, Dr Raymond Kuti, made the call in an interview with the Newsmen in Lagos on Sunday.
Newsmen reports that the guild is the body of medical doctors, who own and operate private hospitals and clinics in Nigeria.
Kuti said that the fund ought to catalyse development across the health sector.
He, however, noted that the majority of members of the guild did not benefit from the fund.
“To ensure transparency in the disbursement of the fund, the CBN should publish the list of beneficiaries that benefited from the fund.
“It should make public the names and amount given to them; the same way it published those that got its foreign exchange.
“That way, we’ll know where the funds are because eight out of every 10 members of the guild that applied for the fund didn’t get it in spite of submitting and meeting the necessary requirements,” he said.
According to him, inflation is affecting healthcare delivery and access to the fund will assist many health facilities to ameliorate the effect.
“As at April 2021, diesel was N190, now it is N340; cost of equipment has also increased.
“We want to continue to give quality healthcare services to Nigerians. However, we need financial support to do this optimally,”Kuti said.
He noted that extension of support would assist its members who provided 60 per cent of quality medical care for citizens to fulfill their mission of bridging the gap between foreign and local access to medical care in the country.
The CBN in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, had in April 2020, facilitated a N100 billion intervention fund geared toward the healthcare sector.
The fund was to provide credit to indigenous pharmaceutical companies and other healthcare value chain players to build or expand capacity.
It also seeks to increase private and public investment in the healthcare sector, facilitate improvements in healthcare delivery and reduce medical tourism toward enhancing foreign exchange conservation.
The apex bank said that due to increased demand and to spur economic recovery in the health sector, its Monetary Policy Committee approved that the fund should increase from N100 billion to N200 billion.
The CBN as at Nov. 2021, said it had disbursed N108.65 billion, supporting 117 healthcare projects which include medical diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, dental services, eye clinics both private and public hospitals, amongst others.