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Buhari approves N8.9bn for payment of health workers’ allowances
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the release of an additional N8.9 billion for payment of hazard allowances for all health workers in the country.
The Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Boss Mustapha, who disclosed this at the PTF daily media briefing on Thursday in Abuja, said the Federal Government would give priority attention to the procurement of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for hospitals and isolation centres across the country.
He said: “The PTF is aware of and working with our partners to speedily resolve the teething challenges faced by intending travellers in accessing the portal, the costs of the test on arrival, inability to complete payment online, and consequential inability to board.
“We therefore apologise to everyone that had experienced these challenges using the platform. We assure all Nigerians and visitors to Nigeria that the PTF is working across multi-layer stakeholder platforms to ease the bottlenecks.
“Let me also assure you that the federal government is partnering with the private sector to facilitate the process of testing a week after arrival in a seamless manner.
READ ALSO: Health workers issue Nigerian govt 15-day strike notice
“This is driven largely by deployment of technology; freedom to pick a certified private laboratory of choice; and delivering the service at minimal cost to the government.
“On the striking health workers, we noticed that over the past one week, a lot of discussion in the public space has happened around the strike action by doctors and threats by other unions in the health sector.
“While appreciable progress has been made in the negotiations to resolve the issues, I must underscore the fact that we are in a global public health emergency situation that has impacted negatively on all aspects of our lives including the economy and finances of the government.
“This has made it imperative for all citizens irrespective of their professions and particularly health workers to re-awaken their sense of humanity and patriotism. The health and survival of our dear nation is important and we should eschew any action that will diminish the gains made in the containment of the pandemic so far.”
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