President Bola Tinubu has said that his administration would be increasing annual budgetary allocation to the health sector to 10 percent by 2024, promising to further raise it if utilised accountably.
Salma Ibrahim-Anas, the special adviser to the president on health, disclosed this on Tuesday at a health summit on taxing sugary drinks and other fiscal policies for healthcare financing, organised by Gatefield in partnership with the National Action on Sugar Reduction Coalition and the World Bank, in Abuja.
Ibrahim-Anas lamented that Nigeria was not doing well in terms of annual budgetary allocation to the health sector, with less than five percent.
She said that health and financing for health would be a priority of the Tinubu-led administration going forward.
“The president himself, even before anybody advocated, has said he is going to increase allocation for health. He will start from ten percent of the total budgetary allocation to health and that is just the beginning.
“Based on our demonstration of capacity to utilise the budget properly and show accountability, he is going to increase more, and that is just the beginning. He has challenged us to do that, to demonstrate those capacities. And he is ready to support us to mobilise additional resources wherever they are”, she said.
The special adviser also announced plans by the government to increase the number of primary healthcare centres from one per ward to two per ward. Ibrahim-Anas stressed that with the current financing, Nigeria cannot achieve its vision for the health sector and socio-economic development.
According to her, the vision was based on the concept of Universal Health Coverage where no one is left behind as every Nigerian would have access in an affordable manner to quality healthcare services within their reach, using the primary, secondary and tertiary health centres.
With the president’s support, the special adviser informed that the government would explore innovative fiscal strategies that guarantee and generates revenue for healthcare.
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She also assured that sugar taxes would be fully dedicated to health or at least most of it, while decrying that Nigeria has an excessive consumption of sugar drinks, hence battling with non-communicable diseases- a significant cause of death accounting for almost 29 percent. Speaking further, Ibrahim-Anas mentioned that local production of pharmaceuticals and assembling medical equipment was a priority.
The health summit brought together stakeholders and experts to advance the pro-health tax policy agenda and for significant accruals from sugar tax to be committed to healthcare upon implementation. President Tinubu suspended the implementation of taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) till September.
Also speaking, Adewumi Emorura, lead strategist at Gatefield, stressed that people must come before profit, hence Nigeria needs to address concerns around funding, to make any headway in healthcare delivery.
“Nobody talks about the 11 million people with diabetes, the millions of people exposed to abdominal obesity. It is a real thing affecting Nigerians and it is associated with hypertension, stroke, cancer. Only six percent is going to health, taxes on sugar, tobacco provide an opportunity to raise funding for health and nutrition intervention”, he said
Adamu Umar, president and co-chair of the National Action on Sugar Reduction Coalition, applauded the president’s move to increase budgetary allocation to health. While stating the position of the coalition, he advocated for a 20 percent increase in taxes on SSBs and for utilisation on health and nutrition intervention.
