FG demands NGOs quarterly spending report

The federal health ministry is to make non-government organizations working in Nigeria to report their spending once every three months in while civil society groups will report how they work in hospitals. Health minister Isaac Adewole said Tuesday the ministry will “issue templates for NGOs to report on their spending on health on a quarterly […]

The federal health ministry is to make non-government organizations working in Nigeria to report their spending once every three months in while civil society groups will report how they work in hospitals.

Health minister Isaac Adewole said Tuesday the ministry will “issue templates for NGOs to report on their spending on health on a quarterly basis.”

Addressing the opening ceremony of a three-day summit on reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) in Abuja, Adewole, represented by the ministry’s director of family health, Dr Balami Wapada, said the reporting “will bring in accountability and using resources more efficiently.”

Civil society groups will also be required to report on service delivery in Nigerian hospitals, he added.

NGOs help provide funding for health programmes in Nigeria, and proposed funding for them are usually captured under revenue, but demanding them to report spending is a new move.

United Nations Population Fund’s representative in Nigeria, Ratidzai Ndhlovu, said accountability for maternal health will require “periodic and transparent dissemination of key results particularly on maternal mortality and its discussion with stakeholders.”

Among them is the push for surveillance and response to every death of a mother or child at birth at all levels of care nationwide.

The summit has drawn dozens of health organisations to consider how accountability can advance RMNCAH and more efficient use of funds to improve lives of children and mothers—among whom 576 out of 100,000 will die every year from pregnancy related causes, according to the National Demographic Health Survey.

The target is to reduce the ratio to 70 per 100,000 by 2030, requiring Nigeria to cut maternal deaths by a minimum of 88% in the next 15 years, while reducing newborn mortality by 68% and deaths among children under age five by at least 80%, according to Adewole.