FASAWE ADVOCATES FOR MORE HUMAN RESOURCES IN FCT HEALTH SECTOR
By: Doris Jonah
As part of ongoing efforts to boost and improve human capacity for quality healthcare delivery in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the Mandate Secretary of the FCT Health Services and Environment Secretariat (HSES), Dr. Adedolapo Fasawe, has advocated for more Human Resources in the FCT Health Sector.
Fasawe made the call while granting an interview to journalists at the FCT Formal Verification/Interview Exercise for applicants of the National Health Fellow (NHF) programme, held at the FCT Public Health Emergency Operations Center (FCT-PHDEOC) within the week.
In her advocacy call, the Mandate Secretary (FCT-HSES) said that inadequate Human Resource in health is a rising concern that worries government at all levels and the NHF programme birthed by the Renewed Hope Initiative of President Bola Tinubu will help to address the challenge.
In her words, “in 2026, getting more Health Fellows gladdens our hearts because initiatives like this support health systems, and adding hands through programmes of this nature will help in achieving the health mandate”.
She added that, “FCTA Health System is constantly trying to improve in ways that can serve the people better by measuring Primary Health Care (PHC) outcomes with key performance indicators like; how many people have been reached with information, advocacy and immunization which makes the NHF programme important to the system due to the tremendous contribution of the pioneer set of fellows in areas of data collection to plan, make corrections and adjustments in line with best practices” she mentioned.
Therefore, the Mandate Secretary (FCT-HSES) noted that in FCT, Health Fellows have made data collection, uploading to the appropriate channel, and getting feedback seamless.
Whilst other gaps have been identified in the system, the 2026 Health Fellows will be engaged to fill in such gaps, one of which is the “task shifting phenomenon,” which will be allocated to them after intensive training, education, and exposure to the terrain they will work in.
Again, Fasawe disclosed that Health Fellows who will be selected to support the FCT Health System are residents of FCT who are very familiar and conversant with “the terrain, language and health seeking behaviour of the people” which will help to achieve success because people in a locality can relate with the young “Health Fellows” whom they might not be aware of nor the role they play but will relate freely with.
In the same vein, the Permanent Secretary (FCT- HSES) Dr. Baba Gana Adam, who is a member of the interview panel appealed to the Federal Government for an increased number of Fellows for FCT due to the impact of the initiative to the territory as only 6 (1 per Area Council) is under serving considering the dynamic and vast nature of FCT.
Throwing more light on the NHF programme, the Permanent Secretary (FCT-HSES) said that under the “Renewed Hope Initiative” Sector Wide Approach (SWAP) system which oversees the programme has brought everything about health in one basket by merging reports from local, state and federal into one report, one budget, one delivery and implementation so that there will be better representation which validates the significance of Health Fellows to every Local Government Area of Nigeria.
Furthermore, Adam reiterated that NHF programme in FCT has shifted health indices positively “in terms of health insurance, maternal mortality and emergency response scheme it is giving good results because these Fellows are trained to go round the Area Councils especially at the PHC level to mentor, train and improve data collection system so that health system is driven by empirical evidence and data for better and necessary action” he said.
Speaking earlier, the FCT SWAP Desk officer, Dr. Teresa Nwachukwu, mentioned that the selection process has been organized in a way that candidates are selected based on merit through a seamless process without having to know anyone, in her words, “once you apply and qualifies, you don’t have to know anybody to be selected as a Health Fellow” she noted.
