A leading development partner on family planning and reproductive health in the country – Pathfinder International, has revealed how $11 million, approximately N3.370 billion got missing in the recently passed 2019 budget, saying the removal of such a very important allocation can worsen the already precarious situation of reproductive health in the country.
Pathfinder International also explained that the inexplicable missing of such a fund had already skyrocketed the retail cost of family planning and reproductive health consumables in health facilities and pharmaceutical shops across the country, having had a knowledge of zero allocation of fund to reproductive health in 2019 budget.
Speaking during the Advance Family Planning SMART Advocacy Refresher Workshop for Media Professionals held at HAWTHORN Suites by WYNDHAM, Abuja on Thursday, Farouk Jega, country director, Pathfinder International, noted that President Muhammdu Buhari-led Federal Government reneged its pledge to international donors and partners on funding of reproductive health through the inexplicable removal of such a fund in the budget.
At Family Planning Advocacy Program organised by Pathfinder International in conjunction with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Bill & Melinda Gates Institute for Population and Reproductive Health, Jega revealed that former President Goodluck Jonathan made provisions for Nigeria’s reproductive health through the defunct Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) in 2012.
He added that the cancellation of SURE-P which began in 2012, annual allocation for family planning and reproductive health in the country by President Buhari immediately he assumed presidency of Nigeria destabilized the whole process, hence, some unseen hands within the Federal Ministry of Health, Presidency and National Assembly removed the budgetary allocation for reproductive health outrightly.
He said, “There had been family planning services to Nigerians free of charge in our public hospitals, this, the government pledged they would do by funding the procurement of family planning commodities in the public sector.
“So, the commodities are those injectibles, pills, condoms, IUD, implants and all the various methods of family planning. The cost implication amounting to 11 million US Dollars every year, just to buy the commodities. And at the time we had a shortfall of close to $8 million, only $3 million was funded.
“For those of you (the media) who understand how this works, the government supposed to bring money and then our usually donors that help us to procure some of these commodities, make up the shortfall in a funding basket and the funding basket is domiciled with UNFPA (United Nations for Population Fund), it’s the UNFPA that will buy the commodities on behalf of the government of Nigeria and when the commodities come, they are first kept at a warehouse in Oshodi, Lagos and from there, they are distributed to all 36 states.
“But, there is a problem. The Federal Government made this funding commitment in 2012, up till now, the Federal Government has not released full amount that they said, they would release. They have just being releasing it in small batches.
“Actually, they have identified the SURE-P as the source where the money would be coming from but unfortunately, when this government came, they strapped SURE-P and there was no basis and they had to look for money elsewhere.
“That is one of problems. Now, we have a situation where the commodities that are supposed to be fully funded by Federal Government with the support of our donors, are not forthcoming because there is no funding for that.
“The donors now are saying that their support is going to augment what the Federal Government brings into the pool. So, if there is no federal funding then there is nothing for them to augment and they cannot buy the commodities for us. What they can do is to make up shortfall for us, but they can’t help us to buy everything together.
“To compound matters, the 2019 budget that was passed three months ago, when it was passed and it was scrutinised very closely, we noticed that only small fund that was used to be there, had been removed completely and up till now, it is not entirely clear where the fund has gone.
“The Ministry of Health swore that the budget Mr President took to the National Assembly has the budget line intact, the National Assembly swore that the budget they reviewed and sent back to President for signature had the budget line but the budget that Mr President signed which is now law does not have the budget line for family planning commodities, then we have a problem because for budget of 2019 which does not have budget line for these commodities, what it means is that it can not be free again.”
RAZAQ AYINLA, Abuja
