ABUJA— Due to continuous depreciation of Naira to other foreign
currencies, stakeholders in the health sector have raised an alarm over
inadequate budgetary
provision of N304 billion for the Federal Ministry of
Health in the 2017 national budget.
The stakeholders on the platform of Partnership for Advocacy in Child and
Family Health, PACFAH, disclosed that the proposed health budget was
cumulatively lower than that of 2016 due to foreign exchange challenges in the
value of naira to the dollar.
In a statement on the State of Nigeria Health Budget – 2017 issued by the
PACFAH, the stakeholders, noted that the proposed 2017 health budget was an
improvement from past trends on the face value, especially the capital
expenditure bit.
The statement read: “The total sum of N304 billion has been proposed for
the Federal Ministry of Health, amounting to 83 percent for recurrent
expenditures (salaries and overheads) and 17 percent for capital expenditure
(health infrastructures and services).
“This 2017 proposed Ministry of Health budget is 4.17 percent of the
national budget, a poor improvement on the 2016 budget of 4.13 percent. With
about 80 about improvement in terms of capital expenditure of the 2017 proposed
budget compared to that of 2016, the reality is that this proposed health
budget is cumulatively lower than that of 2016 due to the skyrocketed foreign
exchange value of a naira to dollar.”
“In 2016, the Central Bank of Nigeria pegged the exchange rate at
N197/1USD. Mid-year of 2016 and for the 2017 proposed budget, the exchange rate
is at N305/1USD. As a result, while 2016 Health budget was $1.269m, the
proposed 2017 Health budget is less by 21 percent at $0.997m. This is important
because most of our health services are reliant on importation.
“By extension, the National Health Act was signed into law in 2014,
unfortunately the proposed 2017 budget does not make provision for it. If it
did, the sum of N46bn would have been added and dedicated to health projects
and services and would have gone a long way to improve the lives of Nigerians.”
“Lastly, the Federal Government committed to the Abuja Declaration of
2001, promising to allocate 15 percent of its budget to Health, year 2017
budget this is the 16th budget year, the best Nigeria has done in Health
allocation was 5.95 in 2012. The 2017 proposed health budget is at 4.17
percent, a whopping 73 percent gap from the 15 percent benchmark.”
Health is Wealth. No sector of the Nigerian economy will function
properly and at all if Health is not guaranteed. The Government need to
urgently reconsider the inadequate 2017 proposed Health budget and upwardly
review it to a minimum of 10 percent allocation while also considering the
National Health Act (2014) and the Abuja Declaration.
The PACFaH NGO partners are include Association for the Advancement of
Family Planning in Nigeria, AAFP; Family planning at Federal level; Civil
Society Initiative for Scaling-up Nutrition in Nigeria, CS-SUNN; Community
Health and Research Initiative, CHRI: Federation of Muslim Women Organisations
of Nigeria, FOMWAN; Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria, HERFON and
Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, PSN.
PACFaH is a health policy advocacy project led by Nigerian NGOs holding
government to account to fulfil health policy and funding commitments.
SOURCE: VANGUARD
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