The National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) has instituted the “Professor Umar Shehu Award for Outstanding Staff” at the agency to motivate excellence.
Speaking at a service award organised for staff of the agency in Abuja on Wednesday, NPHCDA executive director Faisal Shuaib said, “Motivation of staff is crucial to improving productivity.”
He asked for the conditions for the award to be “sustained so that others will have opportunity for recognition.”
The agency has been beset by perceived maladministration misappropriation in the run-up to Shuaib’s appointment to head it in January 2017.
He said the award was to "celebrate a breed of people who in 2017 were faced with a challenge to transform NPHCDA into a focused, driven and purposeful agency.
It comes as international assessment of routine immunisation ranked Nigeria low on vaccine coverage to protect children from vaccine-preventable diseases.
"If we are to change immunisation levels, reverse indices for maternal health, we need to be more purposeful and efficient," said Shuaib.
The award marks the agency’s 25th anniversary coordinating primary health care across over 30,000 health care centres and immunisation nationwide.
