Cross River Govt. ready to Inaugurate Health Insurance Scheme, Attracts Pakistani pharmaceutical firm to Calabar
FeaturedNigeria January 14, 2016 Dianabasi Effiong
Cross River State Governor, Professor Ben Ayade and his deputy Prof. Ivara Esu both alighting from the newly installed Calabar monorail coach shortly after the test run of the facility in Calabar
From: Diana Okon-Effiong, Calabar
As part of efforts to ensure access to efficient and quality healthcare, Gov. Ben Ayade of Cross River on Thursday in Calabar announced that his administration would establish a social health insurance scheme for the people of the State.
According to him all taxable adults may be required to make a monthly contribution of N1000 under the scheme.
he said such contribution would guarantee them free treatment for ailments, including even operations that would have otherwise cost some millions of Naira.
Ayade who disclosed this shortly after inspecting the Calabar Specialist Hospital currently under construction at the Summit Hills, Calabar, said an executive bill would soon be sent to the House of Assembly for consideration.
“This effort will provide secondary and tertiary support health services for our people while ensuring that the rich pay for the poor,” Ayade said, adding that “this will put an end to a situation where money has taken over the life of man.”
Ayade, who noted that medicine should not be for profit but for service, disclosed that the world-class technology-driven hospital should be ready in the next six months.
He said: “When completed the facility will be another addition to the panoply of the tourism offerings of the state in the form of medical tourism.”
In a related development, Ayade also announced plans by his administration to site a pharmaceutical company in the state, which he said would be in operation in the first quarter of 2017.
Ayade stated this when he conducted the would-be investors, Healthage Nigeria limited, along with some of his commissioners on an inspection of the proposed project site along the Goodluck Ebele Jonathan Bypass, close to the Calabar Garment factory in Calabar.
According to the governor, the initiative emanated from not only the conceptualization of the deep seaport and the superhighway, but the peace and tranquility in the state, an attribute he said attracted large foreign participation at the just concluded Carnival Calabar, culminating in investors pouring into the state.
“Carnival is not to dance around but also a marketing platform, even as the deep seaport and superhighway are already attracting a lot of business investors. We are poised to reconstruct our state to move it from dependence on public sector and federation account to an economy that is industrially-driven,” Ayade said.
The governor disclosed that Pakistan with a population of 180 million people, and India are being celebrated for manufacturing high quality drugs that are WHO certified. This feat, he noted must be achieved in the state through the establishment of the pharmaceutical company.
According to Ayade Cross River will always remain a leading example 2particularly in this industrial age”.
“This is why I am going around ministries inspecting commissioners, because as they instill discipline on their workforce, we have a workforce that is prepared to drive an industrially-driven economy,” he said.
Reiterating his administration’s resolve to support investors, the governor said: “We are ready to support any investor including the provision of land. Government will not ask you to pay anything, it is a new business model. The factory is ours and belongs to our land.”
Earlier, the Director, Operations, Healthage Nigeria limited, Farhan Ahmad Khan expressed his firm’s readiness to carry out the job aimed at emulating Pakistan in showcasing WHO approved factory with registered products from NAFDAC.
He said the pharmaceutical company will among other things, prevent capital flight by producing drugs that are hitherto being imported into the country.
Dianabasi Effiong
