News reaching CEOAFRICA news desk is that a private sector-led coalition, Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (PHN), is launching a major health intervention tomorrow specifically aimed at accelerating Nigeria’s progress in achieving the health-related MDGs by 2015 and beyond.

According to source, the body led by Aliko Dangote, Jim Ovia, Aigboje Aig-Imokhuede, Muhammad Ali Pate, Sola David-Borha and others is set to target establishing a vibrant and fast-growing private sector initiative in the nation’s health sector.

Muntaqa Umar-Sadiq, who has just been appointed the CEO of PHN by the board, disclosed that the body has evolved from a private sector roundtable focused on eradicating polio and malaria to a broader private sector-led multi-sectoral coalition committed to improving health outcomes.

According to Muntaqa, “We have outlined a clear vision with a focused strategy to meet our objective to build a world-class private sector-led coalition that accelerates Nigeria’s progress in achieving MDGs 4, 5 and 6 by 2015 and beyond,”  adding that they were also out to meet their goals by focusing on innovation, strategic partnerships, and impact investments.

With a three-pronged vision anchored on collective responsibility, compassion and integrity, Umar-Sadiq assured that they would take ownership and be collectively responsible for achieving MDGs 4, 5 and 6; save the lives of women and children which is at the heart of everything they do, and be driven by strong moral and business principles, respectively.

He assured further that they would provide leadership, explaining that they would be at the forefront of leveraging innovation, technology and impact investments to leapfrog and increase access to care, particularly for the poor.

“We have identified four immediate priority levers in order to achieve PHN’s vision,” he said, listing those levers as strategic partnerships, advocacy, innovation, and impact investments.

The CEO said that part of their mission are also to provide market linkages between innovative programmes, technical partners and funding sources in the private and public sectors; mobilise and organise Nigeria’s private sector to harness its collective capabilities for lasting impact in health, and to build strategic partnerships with the public sector including the Saving One Million Lives Initiative.

To realise these goals, he informed that PHN would invite thought leaders as well as industry leaders from the private sector to join it across its different membership categories, including companies and business leaders with a natural connection to healthcare, either through their core business (e.g., pharmaceutical, medical technology, hospital, health insurance) or indirectly (e.g., financiers of health care infrastructure, developers of technology to improve health, business interest in healthy population).

He noted, however, that there are significant challenges in addressing the weak health indicator outcomes, in particular MDGs 4, 5 and 6, pointing out that limited coordination and fragmentation of private-sector participation and contributions to health lead to unrealised synergies and suboptimal impact.

PHN’s establishment was sparked by Bill Gates in 2010 during a high level private sector roundtable for health with business leaders, and it is expected to be tailored after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The body is expected to ride on the wide reach of the Nigerian private health sector, which serves all income levels including the poor and vulnerable segments, and accounts for at least 60 percent of healthcare service provision in Nigeria.