The Ogun State Government has revealed its target of improving the implementation status of the Health Sector's Annual Operational Plan, AOP, for 2022, saying this would further help to deliver on the promises of the present administration for the sector.

The Commissioner for Health, Dr. Tomi Coker, who disclosed this at the Dissemination Meeting of the 2022 Annual Operation Plan, expressed optimism that the implementation status of the new AOP would improve from 50.2% to a minimum of 80%.

Represented by the Coordinating Director, Ministry of Health, Dr. Festus Soyinka, Dr Coker explained that the AOP was aimed at improving the connection between policy-making, planning, and budgeting allocation to facilitate better implementation of health policies.

She described it as an important vehicle towards actualizing the present administration's vision for the health sector.

"The AOP was developed through a rigorous exercise that engaged key stakeholders in the state health sector at a 5-day workshop in the fourth quarter of the year 2021.

The Commissioner called on all the heads of agencies, directors, unit heads, and Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) officers to work hard to ensure successful implementation of the carefully developed plan, saying the citizens of the State would be the better for it.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Health, Dr. Tayo Lawal charged Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) officers to keep policymakers in the sector abreast of the progress being made with the AOP, calling on the leaders in MDAs to always refer to the plan for strategic decisions.

In his welcome address, the Director, Planning, Research and Statistics, Ministry of Health, Dr. Kayode Kushimo, said the AOP was the last plan to be developed from the Ogun State Strategic Health Development Plan II, 2018-2022, appreciating the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) for thier support towards the realization of the plan.