Stakeholders in Nigeria’s health sector, including Nigerian journalists have called on President Bola Tinubu to allocate 15 percent of the annual budget to the health sector, in alignment with the ‘Abuja Declaration.’
This appeal comes in response to concerns about the inadequacy of the proposed N1.33 trillion funding, representing only five percent of the 2024 budget, which they deem abysmally low.
During the 7th annual conference of Association of Nigeria Health Journalists (ANHEJ), Francis Ukwuije, the World Health Organization Technical Officer, Health Financing and Public-Private Partnerships/Universal Health Coverage Life-Course Cluster in Nigeria emphasized the need for increased funding to address out-of-pocket expenditures in the health sector.
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Ukwuije stated that 10% of the population bears 60% of the total health expenditure, risking financial hardship to cover health-related issues. He stressed the importance of raising sufficient and sustainable revenues to ensure efficient and equitable access to Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
He maintained that many citizens risk their daily income and means of survival while generating huge resources to pay for unpredictable large health bills as well as providing predictable amounts when healthy to cover their unpredictable costs when sick or injured.
The WHO officer therefore, stressed that raising sufficient and sustainable revenues is paramount to guaranteeing efficient and equitable access to achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC).
Joseph Kadiri, the Anhej president emphasized the necessity of deploying more funds to address the country’s maternal mortality rate, one of the highest globally.
He stressed the importance of prioritizing adequate funds for the health sector, citing the need for the full implementation of the Basic Healthcare Provision Fund (BHCPF).
The conference aimed to evaluate the federal government’s efforts in addressing poor health indices, including high maternal mortality and under-five mortality rates, along with a significant percentage of women delivering outside health facilities.
The conference’s theme, “Health Security: Nigeria’s Efforts to Achieve Universal Health Coverage,” addressed various health issues, with a focus on the ongoing diphtheria outbreak, which has claimed over 600 lives from more than 7,000 cases.
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Joseph, while lamenting the federal government’s inability to draw lessons from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic despite the already strategizing effort seen from many countries towards mobilizing resources to curb future epidemics, added that prioritizing adequate funds will boost health security for the attainment of universal health coverage.
“This conference brings together stakeholders from both the public and private space in the health sector to examine the federal government’s efforts to tackle the country ‘s poor health indices such as the maternal mortality rate which is still among the highest in the world, with an estimated 512 deaths per 100,000 live births, a high under-five mortality rate of 117 per 1, 000 live births, and the rate of women that deliver outside health facilities at over 65%, among other statistics”, he said.
