Producing New Health Workers in Nigeria: 874 Scholarships Awarded to Final-Year Students
Ceremonies held February 19 in the Nigerian states of Benue and Edo honored 874 students from schools of midwifery and health technologies who have been selected to receive scholarship and bursary awards through a program supported by CapacityPlus. The students—154 midwives and 720 community health extension workers (CHEWs)—are in their last year of training. The awards are intended to ensure the students will have the financial resources they need to finish their studies and graduate from their programs so they can be deployed to meet Nigerians’ priority health needs.
Dignitaries from the Federal Ministry of Health, state ministries of health, Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, Community Health Practitioners Board, and other stakeholders participated in the ceremonies, held in the cities of Makurdi (Benue state) and Benin (Edo state). Students selected for scholarships attend schools of midwifery or health technologies in almost every state in Nigeria.
“The scholarships are one of the interventions identified to improve preservice education based on findings from an assessment of selected health training institutions conducted by CapacityPlus,” notes Samuel Ngobua, human resources for health program and technical advisor in CapacityPlus’s Nigeria office.
CapacityPlus is also supporting 11 health training institutions, including schools of midwifery and health technologies, by providing textbooks, equipment and training materials, and by offering training for faculty and tutoring for students as part of its activities to strengthen preservice education of midwives and CHEWs.
Working at both the national and state levels, CapacityPlus is addressing a range of human resources for health areas in Nigeria, including preservice education and in-service training, deployment and retention strategies, information systems and data use, and management and leadership.
Related items:
Photo by James Williams/MOG Com (Digital) (recipient from Benin School of Midwifery)
FEATURED RESOURCES
