Lara Adejoro
The Medical Director of Alliance Hospital, Dr Christopher Otabor has called on the Federal Government to deepen its partnership with the private sector to improve healthcare delivery and tackle out-of-school children menace in the country.
He said this when he paid a courtesy visit to the Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Delu Yakubu in Abuja on Friday.
The orthopaedic surgeon also said the office of SSA to the President on Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation is in collaboration with the hospital to address out-of-school children and to ensure people at the grassroots access quality medical services at no cost.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund, one in three children in Nigeria is out of school, totalling 10.2 million at the primary level, and 8.1 million at the junior secondary school level.
It said one in every five out-of-school children in the world is in Nigeria.
“I will roll out my team of medical doctors to carry out regular medical outreaches in the FCT communities, we are ready to do the job. The team, in collaboration with the presidency, will identify, and adopt children of the poor and give them scholarships.
“The Presidency needs to expand its collaboration to the private sector, and the future of the Nigerian children will be bright if the government collaborates with the private sector,” Otabor said.
According to him, many schoolchildren cannot go to school and many Nigerians are unable to pay their medical bills.
He emphasised that with collaboration, there will be an increase in school enrollment and delivery of quality healthcare.
Responding, Yakubu commended Otabor’s readiness to collaborate with the Federal Government in tackling out-of-school children and paying the medical bills of the vulnerable.
Earlier, she presented an award of excellence to Otabor.
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