……….Nigeria Prioritizies Core Pillars of Health Sector Strategic Blueprint: Says Salako.
Nigeria has described the EU-WHO Support to Public Health Institutes in Nigeria (EUSPIN) project as a laudable initiative that complement government efforts that can help to reinforce, strengthen institutional capacity, improving data use, and support sustainable system wide impact.
The Honourable Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare Dr Iziaq Adekunle Salako made this statement in his keynote address during the launch of EU-WHO Support To Public Health Institutes in Nigeria (EUSPIN) held on Monday 11th 2026 in Abuja.
The €4.2 million initiative funded by European Union and is jointly to be implemented by WHO and Federal Government through the Health Ministry is aimed to help strengthen core functions of selected public health institutes to detect outbreaks early, share information faster and reduce the negative impact of poor health outcomes across the country.
He noted that the initiative is fully aligned with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the current administration of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, who recognizes health as central to national development and prosperity.
He added that the transformational agenda of Mr. President is therefore significantly hinged on equitable access to quality healthcare and healthy citizen as ingridients for economic resilence, inclusive growth and posperity for all.
Given the breakdown of health infrastructure owned by government at all levels, which includes over 30,000 primary healthcare centres, 4,000 secondary health facilities and over 200 tertiary health institutions, he reaffirmed that they are essential part of Nigeria’s health system but are not enough to deliver health if strategies for coordination, prevention, early warning and propmt response to outbreaks are not put in place.
He reiterated the commitment of Federal Ministry of Health &Social Welfare, to continue to work towards a strong, resilient, and people centred systems that deliver measurable impact. “The Federal Government of Nigeria remains firmly committed to the core pillars of the Health Sector Strategic Blueprint”
Further more, Dr. Salako said government will continue to work to improve health security and emergency preparedness, including surveillance and response systems by expanding access to quality, equitable, and integrated health services, particularly for vulnerable populations.
Others measures are: Developing a skilled, motivated, and adequately distributed health workforce; Enhancing health information systems and digital transformation to support data driven decision making; and
Promoting sustainable health financing and the efficient use of resources.
The Minister hoped that the project will enhanced the capacity of our national public health institutions to deliver core public health functions, strengthened coordination across levels of government and institutions, improved data generation, analysis, and use for policymaking, increased digital health capacity and innovation and support the ongoing effort of the government to ensure adequacy of power supply to our health institutions.
Dr. Adekunle Salako expressed appreciation to the European Union, the World Health Organization, and all Team Europe partners for their continued partnership and commitment to Nigeria’s health sector, and called on all stakeholders, government institutions at federal and state levels, development partners, academia, and civil societies to work collaboratively to ensure effective implementation, leverage the initiative to strengthen broader health system reforms; and maintain a strong focus on equity and inclusion.
Ado Bako
Assistant Director, Information and Public Relations
12/5/2026.
