LAGOS ENROLS MICHD BENEFICIARIES INTO ILERA EKO
· Presents Programme Scorecard To Stakeholders
The Lagos State Government, through the Office of Civic Engagement and Lagos State Health Management Agency (LASHMA), has enrolled beneficiaries of the Mother, Infant and Child Development (MICHD) Programme into the State’s Health Insurance Scheme also called Ilera Eko.
Speaking at the event held today in Ikeja, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Civic Engagement, Princess Aderemi Adebowale, said the enrolment of the beneficiaries is a major component of the MICHD programme and a strategy to build on the support given to the women while they were pregnant as well as sustain their access to affordable and qualitative healthcare services after delivery.
Her words: “The Office of Civic Engagement understands that to create a peaceful and safe environment where the government can function optimally, citizens from conception to birth and through adolescence to adulthood must be given a fair chance to live, grow and become responsible individuals who are less likely to exert social pressure on the system.
“This is why Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s administration, in line with its T.H.E.M.E.S Development Agenda, launched the MICHD programme – a component of the ‘Womb To School Initiative’ – as a preventive rather than curative security measure geared towards making Lagos safer by the year 2052”.
According to her, MICHD is a nutritional support programme through which nutritional food packs and supplements were provided weekly for indigent pregnant women across the 20 Local Governments and 37 Local Council Development Areas of the State.
“All is set for the rollout of this significant phase of the audacious programme and I charge all stakeholders to use the opportunity of this forum to make a bold attempt at charting a veritable course of decisive action that will make the phase a resounding success”, she affirmed.
Princess Adebowale said the engagement forum also provides opportunities for partners from the public and private sectors to meet with 570 beneficiaries of the programme.
Also speaking at the event, the Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi, represented by Dr. Olamide Okulaja, said the MICHD Programme is part of the plan to ensure that the Lagos State Government can fulfil critical clauses in its social contract with people, through a single initiative, by following them from infancy to childhood and to adolescence.
His words: “For civic engagement to be robust, it must first acknowledge the social contract between the government and its people. The social contract is a voluntary agreement among individuals by which organised society is brought into being and invested with the right to secure mutual protection and welfare of the citizens. The boundaries of civic engagement must become enlarged to encompass the critical elements of health, security and economy as these are the core responsibilities of any government.
“This initiative can ensure balanced citizens, who are productive members of the society, improve human capital development and cause us all to thrive economically in a safe and secure environment”.
In her remarks, the General Manager of LASHMA, Dr. Emmanuela Zamba, assured that the Agency, saddled with the responsibility of implementing the State’s Health Insurance Scheme, will continue to collaborate with other stakeholders in the implementation of the programme in fulfilment of its core mandate of providing access to quality and affordable healthcare for Lagosians.
The MICHD Programme also has the Ministry of Science and Technology as well as the Lagos State Residents Registration Agency, LASRRA, among others as major stakeholders.
PAD/AA/OS
CAPTIONS:
Pix 1: L-R: The representative of Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Olamide Okulaja; Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions, Mrs. Ajibola Ponnle; Special Adviser to the Governor on Civic Engagement, Princess Aderemi Adebowale, and General Manager, LASHMA, Dr. Emmanuella Zamba, at the enrolment of MICHD beneficiaries into ILERA EKO.
Pix 2: L-R: Permanent Secretary, Office of Civic Engagement, Mr. Kayode Ogunnubi; Commissioner for Establishments, Training and Pensions, Mrs. Ajibola Ponnle; General Manager, LASHMA, Mrs. Emmanuella Zamba; a beneficiary of MICH, Special Adviser to the Governor on Civic Engagement, Princess Aderemi Adebowale and others at the enrolment of MICHD beneficiaries into ILERA EKO.
Pix 3: L-R: Permanent Secretary, Office of Civic Engagement, Mr. Kayode Ogunnubi; Marketing Manager, Jawa Group, Mr. Kapour; Special Adviser to the Governor on Civic Engagement, Princess Aderemi Adebowale, and Managing Director, Jawa Group of Companies, Mr. Verkey Verghese, at the enrolment of MICHD beneficiaries into ILERA EKO.
Pix 4: Cross-section of MICHD beneficiaries at their enrolment into Ilera Eko.
