Nigeria loses 3,000 children and women daily to preventable diseases due to poor access to basic healthcare, the Executive Director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency, (NPHCDA), Faisal Shuaib has said.

Mr. Shuaib said some the children die before their fifth birthdays because of the country’s poor health system.

Speaking at a workshop on the Implementation of the Primary Health Care Under One Roof policy, in Abuja on Thursday, Mr. Shuaib said “Primary Healthcare remains the foundation for reasonable and sustainable changes to the poor health indicators in the sector, since it deals with these preventable diseases”.

“Nigeria’s poor health outcome in critical areas is best reflected by the fact that approximately 3,000 women and under five children die daily in the country.

“This implies that in each state represented here, approximately 2,400 women and children die every month, 80 per day, from causes which are preventable.

“We are expected to deliver on results and we will be held accountable for our performance, and the most important evidence of our performance will be seen in the reduction in deaths of pregnant women and children in our respective states and nationally, during our tenures,” he said.

Lamenting the dwindling quality of healthcare services in the country, the Director General of Nigeria Governor’s Forum, Asishana Okauru, said the workshop was paramount as the number deaths of mothers and children continue to soar.

He said in 2015, life expectancy in Nigeria was around 53 and 56 years for men and women respectively, while Nigeria constitutes only about 2 percent to the world population, it contributes up to 10 percent to maternal mortality in the world.

He added that the indices for deaths and impaired quality of life caused by malaria, lower respiratory track infections, tuberculosis, HIV, especially amongst children and women were even more appalling.

“We are here today on a different but related together with a number of strategic partners this time, focused on ensuring the political commitment of our Governors to the implementation of the Primary Health Care Under One Roof policy.