PharmAccess Foundation in partnership with Nigeria Health Watch (NHW) and the World Bank hosted global health stakeholders to deliberate on the implementation of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage (SSB) taxation and its potential as a means for increasing healthcare financing.
The Health Financing Policy Dialogue sought to explore strategies to utilize pro-health taxes as an additional source of health financing for Nigeria, following the recently introduced new taxes (N10 per liter) on non-alcoholic, sweetened carbonated drinks through the Finance Act of 2021.
Njide Ndili, country director of PharmAccess Foundation, commended the Minister of Finance on the prompt implementation of the SSB tax following intense advocacy which was supported by critical stakeholders in the country’s healthcare sector.
She spoke on the importance of increasing health financing and ring-fencing the proceeds from the pro-health taxes, noting that PharmAccess’ committed to the support of mobilizing resources for the health sector while expressing optimism that the dialogue would yield positive results for the sector.
“The COVID-19 pandemic significantly reduced the external funding from other countries as development aid, because they focused on retaining their funds to manage the effects of the pandemic on their health systems,” she said.
“This is, therefore, a turning point for Low and Middle-Income Countries in Africa, including Nigeria—to focus on innovation and local resource mobilization to fund the healthcare sector.”
“With the recent passing of the NHIA law making health insurance mandatory, it is imperative that we mobilize enough resources to fund health service delivery, especially for those who cannot afford to pay for themselves.
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“We are therefore excited to host this dialogue to elicit ideas for implementation following which a communique will be disseminated with the Federal Ministries of Health, Finance, The National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) for further action,” she added.
While delivering her goodwill message, Sonia Odije-Fajusigbe, the economic policy adviser, the Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Lagos, said: “We believe that Nigeria’s Health Insurance Scheme should be decentralized to meet the growing need of the nation and to see that there is more funding for the health sector of Nigeria.”
Similarly, Mohammed Nasir Sambo, a professor, and DG of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA) said that excessive sugar consumption has been linked to a variety of healthcare problems including diabetes and a host of other diseases.
He noted that the cost of treating mild to moderate diabetes has become an additional financial burden for individuals affected, as it ranges from N300,000 to N500,000 per annum. It could even run into millions in very severe cases.
“This trend is particularly worrisome because over 82m Nigerians live on less than $1 per day. If we must achieve Universal Healthcare Coverage (UHC), we must then prioritize health financing, especially through additional taxes or mandatory insurance.
“This is what many developed nations have done. The SSB tax and National Health Insurance Scheme provide Nigeria a revolutionary chance to attain better healthcare services that will decrease Nigerians’ suffering in accessing healthcare.”
Also speaking, Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, spoke on the difficulty of collecting these taxes. Oloriegbe said: “One of the major challenges with this taxation is the problem of collection because the payers are always complaining that they are being taxed in multiple ways.”
“Apart from that, we are all aware of the struggle over our federalism as to who is to collect or not collect value-added taxes (VAT). This is also a major obstacle that is stifling our efforts.”
Ben Akabueze, DG of the Budget Office of the Federation, commended PharmAccess Foundation for putting together the event stressing that the healthcare sector is indeed a pivotal sector for all Nigerians.
He stressed the importance of SSB taxation implementation, he noted that 54 countries in the world and five in Africa have introduced SSB taxes. He spoke on how Nigeria’s SSB taxation journey started in 2016 but came into reality in 2021.
