The Yobe Drugs and Medical Consumables Management Agency (YODMA) has entered into partnership with Lifebank Technology And Logistics Services Limited, a private organisation, for effective distribution of drugs and other medical commodities.
The Commissioner for Health and Human Services, Dr Mohammed Gana, disclosed this at the occasion of signing th epartnership agreement on Wednesday in Damaturu.
He said Yobe had been a state with hard-to-reach locations, “so, there is need to ensure that strategic decisions and interventions are put forth to ensure that drugs reach hard to reach locations.
“Secondly, the agency is also mandated to operate like private sector, which means, to ensure efficiency of resource management.”
The commissioner added that the scope of the partnership was wide, and meant to ensure perfection in the distribution system of drugs and other consumables across the state.
He said “the company is not only to ensure that drugs and consumables reach the last mile, but they are also supposed to build the capacity of those who are working in the agency, as well as deploy technology, data management system and general management and distribution logistics.”
The Executive Secretary, YODMA, Mr Abdulaziz Mohammed, said the agency was established in 2019 and started operations in 2020.
He said part of the mandate of the agency was to provide drugs, reagents and medical consumables to public facilities in the state.
He added that “to do this, we need to have a very strong and reliable solution.
“This is why we thought of partnering the Life Bank Logistics company, which is one of the leading organisations in Nigeria in terms of last-mile delivery.”
Mr Yunusa Na’allah, the Public Sector Lead of the company, said the aim of the partnership was to make drugs available to the last mile.
He said “these drugs have to be taken to where they are needed promptly, and in the right condition.”
(NAN)
