By Saidu Adamu, Jalingo
The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and the Taraba State Government have on Friday awarded contracts for the revitalisation of 11 Primary Healthcare centres (PHCs) across six Local Government Councils with funding from the Global Fund.
Speaking at the event in Jalingo, the Chief of UNICEF Bauchi Field Office, Dr Nuzhat Rafique, urged the contractors to carry out their assignments with honesty, dedication and professionalism.
Rafique said the official handover of selected primary healthcare facilities by the Taraba State Government to UNICEF, through the Commissioner for Health, Dr Bondiya Buma, which were thereafter, handed over to the contractors for execution, signified an important collaboration to save the lives of mothers and children.
She charged chairmen of the benefiting local government councils to take personal responsibility for the projects by ensuring quality delivery and timely completion to enhance maternal health in their respective areas.
“This is more than just a construction work, it means saving the lives of mothers and children and all of us must take it seriously,” she said.
Rafique stressed that contractors must justify the confidence reposed in them by delivering quality projects that would have significant impact on women and children in the benefiting communities and the state at large.
She named the benefiting local government councils as Ardo-Kola, Bali, Gassol, Karim-Lamido, Sardauna and Zing.
In his remarks, the Commissioner of Health, Dr Buma, commended the Global Fund for its support to Taraba and praised UNICEF for ensuring transparency in the contractor selection process.
He reaffirmed the state government’s commitment to providing an enabling environment for contractors to complete the projects within the stipulated gestation period.
Buma also appealed to facility managers to cooperate with the contractors to ensure timely completion, noting that communities across the state stood to benefit immensely from the intervention.
Also speaking, the Executive Secretary, Taraba Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr. Nuhu Tukura, lauded UNICEF and the Global Fund for their continued support and urged media practitioners to sustain coverage of the state government’s efforts, particularly in the health sector.
Our correspondent reports that the project, being implemented by UNICEF with funding from the Global Fund, is expected to be completed by March 2026.
