By Isaac Olufemi Ojo
Ibadan– The Oyo State Government has taken decisive steps to safeguard the longevity of its health programmes and preserve milestones achieved through decades of collaboration with development partners.
This development came to the fore as APIN Public Health Initiatives evaluated its past interventions and mapped out strategic priorities for the upcoming operational phase.
The high-level strategy session formed the core of the Oyo State Annual FY26 Programme and Sustainability Performance Scorecard Review, alongside the FY27 Joint Planning and Priority Setting Meeting, hosted by APIN in Ibadan.
The intensive two-day symposium—convened on Thursday and Friday as part of landmark events commemorating APIN’s 25th anniversary in public health advocacy—drew key figures.
Discussions centered heavily on performance metrics and crafting resilient mechanisms to withstand future funding shifts as external aid undergoes global reconfiguration.
The Oyo State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Oluwaserimi Ajetunmobi, while delivering her address on day two of the summit underscored the imperative for the state to proactively prepare for a future where traditional development partners might scale down donor backing for vital health services.
While acknowledging APIN’s stellar role as a foundational pillar in Oyo State’s robust response to HIV/AIDS and other systemic health challenges spanning nearly two decades, she emphasized that government leadership must actively spearhead transitional safety nets to cement these hard-won gains.
According to her, building a bulletproof, resilient healthcare framework requires aggressive strategic partnerships, localized innovation, transparency, creative health financing, and seamless programmatic integration. “We need to collaborate with partners and we should not work in isolation. We must stop running parallel programmes and move to integrated programmes so that we can bring everybody on board,” Ajetunmobi stated.
The commissioner spotlighted state-backed health insurance as an indispensable vehicle to widen healthcare access while guaranteeing sustainable revenue streams for medical facilities and underserved populations.
She passionately called on residents—particularly people living with HIV (PLWH)—to sign up for health insurance packages, assuring them of seamless access to holistic medical care alongside specialized HIV treatments.
Ajetunmobi added that the state administration is accelerating coverage brackets for indigent demographics, encompassing senior citizens, nursing mothers, and children under the age of five, effectively insulating households from out-of-pocket catastrophe.
The Executive Secretary of the Oyo State Health Insurance Agency (OYSHIA), Dr. Sola Akande while strengthening the commissioner’s stance, noted that health insurance remains the ultimate shock-absorber for preserving donor-initiated health frameworks.
Akande explained that the APIN engagement served as an eye-opener, challenging stakeholders to transition smoothly from donor dependency to robust domestic resource mobilization.
He revealed that while the state previously carved out an exclusive enrollment window targeting 10,000 people living with HIV, current data reflects fewer than 1,000 enrolled so far—a gap he described as an urgent call to action. “We can do more. We want to get them and then increase the pool of healthcare,”Akande charged, confirming that continuous stakeholder talks are underway to officially integrate comprehensive HIV services into the baseline state health insurance benefit package.
Speaking on behalf of the organization, the Coordinating Director of Programmes at APIN Public Health Initiatives, Dr. Ifeyinwa Onwuatelo, detailed the organization’s historic footprint supporting the Nigerian government across multiple tiers in combating HIV and allied diseases.
Onwuatelo revealed that APIN has successfully served over 300,000 patients across its five focal operational states, with approximately 33,000 active clients receiving care right in Oyo State alone.
She emphasized that the current institutional milestone centers on total state ownership, empowering local systems to manage infrastructure, medical equipment, and diagnostic tools effectively.
Echoing similar sentiments, Dr. Ibilibor Chukwuemeka, Associate Director of Health System Strengthening at APIN, stressed that true sustainability relies on a tripod of political, programmatic, and financial ownership by the host government.
Chukwuemeka advocated strongly for mainstreaming HIV management directly into general clinical workflows rather than running siloed units, a move designed to slash overhead costs and eliminate institutional duplication.
On the legislative front, the lawmaker representing Ibadan North-East Constituency 1 in the Oyo State House of Assembly, Hon. Abiodun Babalola, pledged total commitment from the legislative arm.
Babalola commended APIN for the timely engagement, noting that the parliament holds the constitutional mandate of appropriation and will actively translate summit resolutions into actionable state policies and legislative backing.
As APIN marks a remarkable 25-year milestone—having supported over 315,000 people living with HIV via the APIN-PEPFAR framework and screened over 13.5 million citizens since 2018—Oyo State stands poised to anchor its next chapter of healthcare delivery firmly on local resilience and sustainable domestic financing.
