Nigerian press zooms in on plans to reposition health sector, others

APA – Lagos (Nigeria)
The report that the Federal Government is to reform and reposition the Nigerian health sector in order to deliver quality healthcare services to Nigerians is one of the trending stories in Nigerian newspapers on Monday.
The Guardian reports that the Federal Government is to reform and reposition the Nigerian health sector in order to deliver quality healthcare services to Nigerians.
Consequently, it has concluded plans to digitise the nation’s healthcare system and will roll out a National Electronic Medical Record platform to ensure validated and reliable data that can be used to deliver care to the people.
Addressing journalists yesterday in Abuja, Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof Mohammed Ali Pate, said the government is set to mobilize private capital to invest in physical infrastructure, equipment and human resources to restore confidence in the nation’s healthcare system and discourage Nigerians from seeking medical treatment abroad for ailments that can be treated in the country.
He said, “We need to ensure that our hospitals function better so that our people will have confidence in our health system. We need to address the problem of the health workforce that we are losing so that health workers who have left the country can start coming back. We will transform our human resources for health; we will grow the pipeline of medical workers in the country and retain existing talent to limit the effects of emigration.”
Pate noted that if the government improves infrastructure and address the issues affecting the health workers, it will go a long way in stopping the incessant strike in the health sector and some of the health workers who have left the country will come back.
The minister noted that as part of efforts to address the lingering strikes in the health sector, he, along with the Minister of State and the Permanent Secretary in the ministry, met with four of the professional associations and they acknowledged that there was a need to put rancours behind and begin to rebuild trust and restore the respectability of the health profession.
Pate, who noted that Nigeria has over 400,000 health workers of different categories, added that doctor ratio to population is below World Health Organization’s requirements. Hence, the need to train more health workers.
The newspaper says that there are indications that the Federal Government may have returned subsidy payment on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), using the supposed commercialised Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited to manage the market shocks and maintain monopoly of the downstream segment of the nation’s oil and gas industry.
According to The Guardian analysis, about N318 billion (N10.6 billion) monthly losses are now recorded on petrol and may be calculated as under-recovery by the supposed NNPC Limited. Similar development had played out under the former administration of Muhammadu Buhari, where the government secretly returned subsidy and called it under-recovery in NNPC’s books.
Usually, the federation account suffers it. The fund is usually deducted before NNPC makes any remittance into the account meant for the three tiers of government.
Coming weeks after President Bola Tinubu said there would no longer be increase in pump price of PMS and days after NNPC’s Huub Stokman took over as Chairman of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), some marketers told The Guardian yesterday that the state oil firm is now subsidising through its access to foreign exchange.
In mid-August, Tinubu stated that despite the deregulation of the downstream market, the current petrol price would remain unchanged, as there are no immediate plans to raise fuel prices.
As at the last week of August, PMS was trading for $1,030.11 per metric tonne at the international market compared with the $859.25 it traded around July when NNPC increased pump price to an average of N617 per litre.
The Punch reports that at least four banks recorded N478bn non-performing loans during the first half of this year, according to their financial results
Specifically, Guaranty Trust Bank Holding Plc (GTCO), FBN Holdings Plc and two other banks reported N478.93bn non-performing loans by value in the half-year ended June 2023, an increase of nearly 16 per cent from N413.36bn reported in the full year ended December 31, 2022.
The other two banks are FCMB Group Plc and Fidelity Bank Plc.
With about 4.3 per cent NPL ratio and N5.26trn gross loans & advances, FBN Holdings reported N226.24bn NPL by value in H1 2023 from N204.29bn reported in 2022.
The holdings declared 5.4 per cent NPL ratio and N3.79trn gross loans & advances in the 2022 financial year.
GTCO declared N115.29bn NPL by value as of H1 2023 from N102.37bn reported in the 2022 financial year.
GTCO in its presentation to investors and analysts said, “The Group’s IFRS 9 Stage 3 loans closed at 4.6 per cent (Bank: 3.6per cent) in H1-2023 from 5.2per cent (Bank:4.7 per cent) in 2022. With Individuals and Others emerging as sectors with the highest NPLs i.e., 20.9 per cent and 30.96 per cent respectively.
The newspaper says that the Central Bank of Nigeria should abandon the merger of the parallel and official exchange rates, a former Deputy Governor of CBN, Dr Tunde Lemo, has said.
According to him, the naira is not an internationally convertible currency and a gap of not more than N50 should not worry the apex bank.
Lemo disclosed this in a paper he delivered at the Lagos Business School, recently.
Commending the government for the courage to merge the rates, he stated that the gap had presented huge arbitrage opportunities.
He said, “Unfortunately, dollar scarcity, oil theft, reserve level, previous actions of the CBN (too many rules), outstanding trade’s commodities, capital control, overdue swaps, etc., have dried up liquidity. I advise that policymakers should jettison merging the two rates (naira is not an internationally convertible currency). A gap of not more than N50 should not worry about the CBN.”
He further stated that there might be some issues with some of the government’s monetary policies.
Lemo stated, “Low interest rate: This is very good to wish, but difficult to deliver in a high and rising inflation environment. Interest rates are high due to monetary and structural reasons and low interest cannot be delivered until we rein in inflation and address structural factors.”
The former CBN deputy governor also called for a reduction in the cost of governance in the country.
GIK/APA