AfricaPress-Tanzania: TANZANIA government has signed two -bilateral grant agreements with the Swiss government worth 39.59bn/- to support the country’s efforts of attaining universal health coverage and in the fight against malaria.
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Planning, Mr Doto James said that the first agreement worth 24.51bn/- will finance the Health Promotion and System Strengthening (HPSS) project while the second pact valued at 15.08bn/- has been dished out to support Malaria Control Programme.
“As we sign the two agreements today(yesterday), I would like to remind you that on October 6 this year, the two governments also signed another twobilateral grant agreement worth 44.1bn/- for the Performance Based Health Basket Fund and Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN) II programme, thus for October alone Tanzania has signed grant agreements worth 83.69bn/-,” the PS said.
He said that the money will be spent in improving the health systems in the country through the improved Community Health Fund (iCHF) which is aimed at enhancing the health sector.
He further added that the fund dished out for malaria programme will help to reduce the number of malaria related deaths and execution of strategies for preventing new infections.
“We are going to have a special plan for malaria control in the country which is aimed at eliminating the number of malaria related deaths and expand Malaria Free Zones to half of the country come 2030 through identifying malaria risk areas,” he said.
Switzerland Ambassador to Tanzania, Didier Chassot said that his country has a long standing cooperation with Tanzania, thus the grant will help the country strengthen its health sector, including the fight against malaria.
“The new malaria programme we have signed today will help to end the disease in Tanzania,” he said.
Immunization Director from the Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Dr Leonard Sudi said that the government will spend the funds on strengthening health systems and statistics in order to continue reducing the number of malaria deaths which have currently dropped by more than 67 per cent.
“With this support, we will continue to enhance statistics systems, because they are crucial in showing the progress made so far in the sector,” he said.
