The path to universal health care coverage in Delta State began in February 2016 with the establishment of the Delta State Contributory Health Scheme (DSCHS) under the oversight of the Delta State Contributory Health Commission (DSCHC), which aims to help the state achieve its long-term goal of reaching universal health coverage. As of March 2023 some 1.3m residents were covered by the DSCHS – or around 20% of the state population – including roughly 1.2m pregnant women, young children and elderly people under the equity plan.
Health Facilities
As of 2022 there were 511 accredited government and private health care facilities providing services under the DSCHS. The decade prior had seen expansions of Delta State’s health care infrastructure, including the renovation of most general hospitals in the state; the provision of new equipment to 58 secondary and 107 primary health care facilities; the relaunch of emergency ambulance services; the construction of a modern isolation ward; the reactivation of a mobile field hospital and boat clinic, as well as 12 clinics at camps for internally displaced peoples; and the construction of additional service-delivery facilities.
Primary Care
The creation of hospital boards has revamped the management of health care facilities in Delta State, while investment in new facilities has improved access to primary care. However, health care centres and medical staff remain concentrated in urban areas, making access to primary health care difficult for rural communities. Similarly, there remains room for improvement in terms of the average annual state budget allocation for health care. Of the 2023 total capital budget of a little more than N336bn ($801m), 8% was allocated to health care.
Education
Of that same total capital budget for 2023, 17% was allocated to the state’s education system, which comprises primary and secondary schools, technical and vocational education and training (TVET), and higher education. In 2015 the Technical and Vocational Education Board was founded to oversee TVET activities. In the following years six existing technical colleges were renovated and converted into centres of excellence and their courses were accredited, which in turn resulted in a rise in enrolment from 2510 in the 2015/16 academic year to 4980 in 2017/18.
Greater investment in infrastructure since 2016 has led to three new model technical colleges, with six more under construction as of late 2022. There were also 14 vocational skills acquisition centres, and 62 new primary and secondary schools built between 2016 and 2022, and several public primary and secondary school classrooms were renovated across the state. In 2021 the Ministry of Science and Technology launched phase one of the ICT Youth Empowerment Programme to provide training to self-employed individuals and help start-ups located in Delta State launch their operations. The programme targets individuals ranging in age from 18 to 40, training them in skills ranging from mobile and web application development and solar energy system installation, to networking, security solutions and fibre optics management.
Higher Education
The state government has upgraded three tertiary educational institutions to universities – the University of Delta in Agbor, Dennis Osadebay University in Asaba and the Delta State University of Science and Technology in Ozoro – to improve access to higher education and improve the development of human capital.
The state government outlined several different targets for 2023, including the reduction of the rate of children out of school from 14.1% to 5% and the modernisation of 80% of all basic schools. The 2023 targets also include teacher training for at least 80% of the state’s teachers, and a 40% increase in the retention rate for primary and secondary education.
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