General News
Benue Govt Pushes Stronger Partnerships for Improved Health Outcomes
From Dooshima Terkura, Makurdi
The Benue State Government has called for stronger accountability among government agencies and development partners in the health sector, stressing that investments in reproductive health must translate into measurable improvements in maternal and child health outcomes.
The Deputy Governor, Dr Sam Ode, made the call on Saturday through the Secretary to the State Government, Mrs Deborah Aber, while declaring open the 2026 Annual General Meeting of MSI Reproductive Choices, North Central Region, in Makurdi.
The meeting, themed, “Growing Together: Accountability and Teamwork for Greater Impact,” brought together government officials, MSI Nigeria management and staff, as well as other stakeholders, to review the organisation’s performance, identify operational challenges and develop strategies for improved service delivery across the region.
Ode said the theme aligned with the administration’s approach to healthcare delivery, stressing that partnerships must complement government priorities and strengthen public health systems.
He said, “Partnerships must be aligned with government priorities, strengthen public systems and, most importantly, deliver measurable results for our people.”
According to him, the state government remained committed to accessible and quality healthcare as a critical component of human capital development.
He said through the IMPACT Project, 98 primary healthcare centres had been targeted for rehabilitation and revitalisation, but stressed that the government’s vision extended beyond renovating health facilities.
“A renovated PHC must have trained personnel, commodities, equipment, functional referral systems and sustainable financing. Our objective must therefore be to move from rehabilitating health facilities to building a resilient health system that produces measurable health outcomes,” he said.
Ode challenged government officials and development partners to assess health interventions beyond the number of trainings conducted, meetings held or beneficiaries reached, urging them to focus more on tangible health outcomes.
He consequently directed the Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr Paul Ogwuche, to work with the ministry, its agencies and development partners to institutionalise an annual health-sector performance briefing.
He said the briefing should demonstrate how government and partner investments were contributing to the reduction of maternal mortality and improvements in other priority health indicators.
“This is not about who takes credit. It is about collective accountability for results. It should help us understand what is working, where the gaps remain and where government and partners should direct resources for greater impact,” he said.
The Deputy Governor also urged MSI Nigeria to deepen its partnership with health training institutions in the state, saying pre-service training should complement continuous in-service training for health workers.
He said strengthening institutions that produce nurses, midwives, community health workers and other health professionals would help ensure that essential competencies were acquired before they entered the workforce.
Ode further urged MSI Nigeria to pay greater attention to Internally Displaced Persons and host communities, noting that displacement created additional barriers to maternal and reproductive healthcare while increasing pressure on already overstretched health facilities.
“We do not want parallel systems. We want stronger government systems capable of serving IDPs, host communities and the wider population sustainably,” he said.
Earlier, the Country Director of MSI Nigeria Reproductive Choices, Emmanuel Ajah, said the AGM was designed to review the North Central region’s year-to-date performance, address operational and human-resource challenges, reinforce integrity and ethical standards, and develop strategies for sustainable impact.
Ajah said MSI Nigeria began operations in the country in 2009 and in Benue in 2012, adding that the organisation currently supports more than 6,000 public primary healthcare facilities nationwide and operates across all 36 states.
He said the organisation, whose mission is “children by choice, not chance” and vision is “a world in which every day is wanted,” remained focused on expanding access to family planning and reproductive health services, particularly for women and girls.
According to him, MSI Nigeria served 4.6 million Nigerian women with long-acting reversible contraception in 2025.
The Director-General, Bureau for International Cooperation and Development, Dr Leo-Angelo Viashima, commended MSI Nigeria for its interventions in Benue and praised the state government for creating what he described as an enabling environment for international development partners and organisations to operate in the state.
The Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr Paul Ogwuche,
in his keynote address, said reproductive health and family planning were integral to the state’s broader health and development agenda.
He linked the areas to maternal and child health, women’s empowerment, economic productivity and universal health coverage.
“Government cannot achieve these objectives alone. Progress requires coordinated action, shared responsibility and sustained collaboration among government institutions, development partners, implementing organisations, professional bodies, traditional institutions and the communities we serve,” Ogwuche said.
He said the partnership between Benue State and MSI Nigeria remained valuable because it could help align interventions with state priorities, strengthen existing systems and ensure that investments produced measurable benefits.
Ogwuche urged stakeholders to focus on service delivery, community engagement, commodity security, quality of care, data use, workforce capacity and sustainable financing.
The MSI Regional Manager, North Central, Patience Otache, who welcomed participants, urged them to engage openly, learn from one another and develop strategies capable of delivering stronger results before the end of the year.