Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, has allocated less to basic healthcare delivery and capital expenditure in its 2020 budget compared to the 2019 vote.
The Federal Government allocated N47bn for capital expenditure in 2019 compared to N46 billion proposed for 2020, representing a 2.13 percent decrease. Similarly, in 2019, N51.22 billion was slated for the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) against N44.50 billion in 2020. This represents a 13.12 percent decrease.
Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s president, in his 2020 appropriation bill submitted to the National Assembly on Tuesday, 08, October 2019, put proposed total government spending for 2020 at N10.33 trillion.
Nigeria faces challenges in its health sector, including an inadequate supply of medical doctors and poor or substandard health care facilities.
Many of the country’s citizens are also unable to access healthcare services because they lack the ability to pay for them. Nigeria was last year declared the world capital of poverty for having the largest number of people living below the poverty line.
Oxfam International in its World Poverty Report on Monday put the number of Nigerians living in absolute poverty at 94 million.
