Three African countries will benefit from the UK’s £15 million funding aimed at promoting healthcare in Africa.
The initiative, under the UK’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget for 2022 to 2025, seeks to optimise, build and strengthen the health workforce in the 3 African countries.
However, Africa faces challenges in achieving universal health coverage to enable its people to access the much-needed services.
This year’s beneficiaries are Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana.
The financing comes amid economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent global shocks stemming from the war in Ukraine.
Will Quince, UK’s Health Minister said the initiative was a commitment by Britain in strengthening the performance of healthcare in Africa.
In addition, Quince stated that the programme will have a knock-on effect on boosting global pandemic preparedness and reducing inequalities.
“Highly skilled, resilient staff are the backbone of a strong health service.
I’m delighted we can support the training, recruitment and retention of skilled health workforces in Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana,” Quince said.
Boosting Healthcare in Africa
Of particular, £6 million from the ODA funding pledge will support the WHO to deliver health workforce planning and capacity-building.
Further, the initiative will collaborate with local governments to promote healthcare in Africa.
As part of the Building the Future International Workforce ODA programme in Ghana, Uganda and Somaliland the initiative previously funded $5.3 million.
Consequently, the funding helped to improve training opportunities for refugees and displaced people.
The UK picked Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana as they showed a clear need for workforce support.
High population mortality rates and low staff numbers, unemployment plague African systems.
Moreover, the funding is a boost for Nigeria coming days after African Development Bank (AfDB) approved a $15 million subordinated loan to bolster its infrastructure.