Public health minister, Manaouda Malachie has been the first to appear before the committee led by Rosette Ayayi, chairperson of the finance and budget committee of the national assembly.

According to the presentation drafted by the ministry of public health, the budget allocation stands at 197.121 billion CFA Francs and of which 84.197 billion CFA francs has been allocated to operational activities and 112.924 billion CFA Francs in the public budget investment. A drop in the budget of this ministerial department compared to the 2020 budget which stood at 213.651 billion CFA Francs.

The budget of the ministry of public health focuses on four key programmes notably; Health promotion, disease prevention, case management, governance and institutional support in the health sector.

Concerning the health promotion programme, the budget allocated stands at 18 888 591 billion CFA francs with emphasis on the effective implementation of UHC.

The disease prevention programme that will help strengthen surveillance of epidemics is estimated at 40.701 607 647 billion CFA Francs; the case management programme on its part stands at 90.491 076 240 billion with stress on the reduction of the hospital and community lethality of priority communicable and non-communicable diseases. And as for the programme on governance and institutional support, the budget allocated stands at 47 039 724 224 billion CFA Francs.

Speaking to media after his passage before the committee, Minister Manaouda Malachie said several actions have been carried-out in 2020 and these efforts need to be maintained in order to have more positive results.

Public health minister stressed on some priorities that will be scaled up in 2021 despite challenges linked to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We are going to increase our actions as far as infant and maternal mortality are concerned. We shall keep fighting against the Covid-19 pandemic and other pathologies.”

He said emphases shall be laid further on the fight against certain diseases not putting aside HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, vaccine preventable diseases and the effective execution of the universal health coverage (UHC) which will help improve on the health and well-being of Cameroonians.

Manaouda Malachie said: “We have put in place in 2020 the universal health coverage through the signing of a partnership contract and in 2021 we think that focus will be on enrolment with the hope that many Cameroonians will start benefiting from UHC.”

From the presentation of the minister of public health, he outlined the fact that his ministerial department will be committed to improving the availability and quality as well as the humanization of health care and services at all levels.

Elise Kenimbeni