The Federal Executive Council (FEC) on Wednesday approved about N10.299 billion for the procure­ment of diagnostic kits for diabetes, anti-retroviral drugs for resistant HIV/AIDS patients, antibiotics, anti-hypertensive and anti-diabetic medications.

Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate, disclosed this while briefing newsmen at the end of the Council meeting presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The FEC meeting was the second within the week.

The minister said that the government intervention in the health sector was in line with the admin­istration’s aspiration to ensure that Nigerians get access to quality and affordable health services.

He explained that out of the total sum, N997 million was earmarked for another procurement of anti-retrovi­ral drugs for HIV/AIDS patients that are having resistant, N2 billion is for the diagnostic kits for diabetes and N4.5 billion for the procurement of medical commodities such as antibi­otics, anti-hypertensive and anti-dia­betic medications.

The sum also includes N2.1 billion for the procurement of a mobile X-ray machine for the Abubakar Tafawa BalewaUniversityTeachingHospital in Bauchi as well as the rehabilitation and equipping of the hospital with a computerised tomography cat scan and 64 slice CT scan.

According to him, “Today (Wednesday) two memos related to the health and social welfare sector, in line with the president’s aspiration to ensure that Nigerians get access to quality health services and that they can afford and for which we’ll be making steady progress.

“FEC approved contract of N10.299 billion for various products that are linked to enhancing the ac­cessibility and affordability of health commodities, health services by Ni­gerians.

“The first category was the third line anti-retroviral drugs. A few weeks ago, we approved the first line anti-retroviral drugs, second and third line for those who are re­sistant, Nigeria is putting forth re­sources, almost N997 million worth of contract to procure the third line anti-retroviral drugs for those who are HIV infected.

“I believe you will understand the importance of this, given the chang­es in the global health financing and moving towards most of domestic financing to allow Nigerians to con­tinue on treatment as they require.

“The second category is the pro­curement that was approved for lo­cally manufactured diagnostic kits for diabetes. Diabetes is a major issue in our country. It’s among the fastest growing segment.

“We have lots of our population suffering from diabetes, and some are not even aware they have dia­betes. In addition, we are having a local company for the first time, one of the first in the continent who will manufacture this diagnostic test kits in Nigeria.

“This is a company based in La­gos, which we had commissioned. It’s a private company, but it’s manu­facturing in Nigeria. So government is procuring the diagnostic kits the Onpoint Blood Glucose Monitoring System that is manufactured here in Nigeria. This is bringing to life the effort to unlock the healthcare value chain by encouraging local manufacturers.

“So, the Federal Government is procuring N2 billion worth of those diagnostic kits. Out of this total amount that I had mentioned, that will also be in addition to Onpoint of the glucose monitoring devices.

“But anybody who has diabe­tes will know that they will have to monitor over time. So the devices are also being procured and they will be distributed. The health workers will be trained through primary health care centres and other facilities, and those commodities, we believe will bring relief to many Nigerians who are poor and vulnerable and cannot otherwise afford it. So that’s also what was approved by the Federal Execu­tive Council.”