Expert links Africa’s health crisis to neglected primary health centres

Dr Ben Nkechika, a renowned Human Capital Development expert and Health Management Consultant, has says Africa’s real health crisis lies at the doorstep of neglected Primary Healthcare systems.

Nkechika said this in an interview withour correspondent on Monday in Abuja.

He said that while global attention often gravitated towards gleaming hospitals and advanced equipment, the collapse of primary healthcare continues to claim lives across Africa.

“Strong primary healthcare is not controversial, it is essential. The real tragedy is that most people never make it to a hospital at all,” he said.

According to him, in countless villages across Nigeria and other parts of Africa, a mother still delivers her baby on a bare floor because the nearest nurse is 40 kilometres away.

“A child dies from preventable malaria because no health post is close enough to administer a simple treatment, “ he said.

The Health expert said that 60 per cent of all medical conditions in Africa could be treated at the primary level.

He said that underinvestment and misplaced priorities had left frontline clinics broken, underfunded and understaffed.

“We are building pyramids from the top down. But real change starts at the base, in the dusty, forgotten clinics that still manage to change lives,” he said.

He said that countries like Rwanda, Kenya, and Ghana had demonstrated the power of decentralised PHC systems.

He said that these models had delivered vaccines, provided maternal care, screened for non-communicable diseases and created thousands of jobs for nurses and community health workers, all while keeping healthcare costs sustainable.

Nkechika said that the numbers tell a compelling story.

“Only four in 10 Nigerians have access to functional primary healthcare facilities

“Up to 70 per cent of the country’s health budget was still allocated to secondary and tertiary care, and millions across Africa continue to die from preventable causes due to weak PHC systems.

“If Africa invested even half as much in PHC as it does in urban hospitals, we will save lives, reduce costs and build resilient economies ” he said.

According to him, PHC is not just healthcare; it is survival, dignity and education.