The director-general of Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Chikwe Ihekweazu has raised an alarm over the removal of the 2.5 percent healthcare security funds from the 2021 budget of the agency.
This was just as the minister of health; Osagie Ehanire disclosed that 70 molecular laboratories have been established for the testing of Covid-19 in the country.
Ihekweazu and Ehanire made the disclosures on Thursday when they both appeared before the House of Representatives joint committees on health to defend the 2021 budget proposals.
The NCDC boss explained that the security fund was insurance for the rainy day in the fight against public health emergencies, stressing that the removal of the fund may impede the Centre’s efforts at responding to public health emergencies in the future.
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Ihekweazu stated that “On the impact of the removal of the 2.5 percent allocation of the primary health care fund that was supposed to be allocated under the 2018 manual for the implementation of that funds, this provision has been withdrawn. We do not have any funds available for health security under the revised basic healthcare provision funds. I want to highlight what this portends for the country as we go into 2021 and the impact it will have.
“Health care provision fund is an investment in health security. It is a hard political choice because it is like insurance. Obviously, for some reasons, health security fund is important. It is not a choice for the NCDC but the country. We are in the middle of the tropics. We have the type of population density.
“I cannot stand here and promise that there will not be a big pandemic in the future but what I can promise is that we have to keep preparing. Just this week, we are investigating clusters of unknown diseases in Enugu and Delta States”.
He said NCDC had worked regularly to keep the numbers of Covid-19 cases low but warned against complacency, as the evil days are not over yet.
While stating that the Ccentre has not received any direct cash donations from anyone, he said: “I was careful not to go into the details of the work NCDC is doing because I don’t want to lead the country into the position of complacency. Even if have we managed fairly successfully to keep the numbers low in Nigeria, we are not out of the woods. The numbers in the countries that we visit are still escalating. But to be honest, one day we will tell our story.
