Federal health budget rises 187.25% in 5 years. But there is high malnutrition rate
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Federal health budget rose 187.25 per cent from 305.1 billion in 2016 to N876.4 billion in 2022, says Finance Minister Zainab Ahmed, yet Nigeria has the highest malnutrition rate in Africa, and the second highest in the world.
Nigeria has about 17 million of its children “undernourished”, which results in them being “stunted and/or wasted”.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), which gave the statistics in September 2021, warns that Nigeria is off-track to achieve SDG2: Zero Hunger by 2030.
The 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey also shows that among children aged six to 23 months in Nigeria, only 23 per cent have the minimum necessary dietary diversity, and only 42 per cent have minimum adequate meal frequency.
Ahmed stressed at the Primary Health Care Summit in Abuja that quality primary health care (PHC) is indispensable to achieving universal health coverage (UHC).
Her words: “FGN budget for health sector has more than doubled over the past five years, increasing by 123.6 per cent from N305.1 billion in 2016 to N682.1 billion in 2021.
“Further by 28.5 per cent to ₦876.4 billion in 2022. And further by 28.5per cent to ₦876.4 billion in 2022.
“FGN has committed to increasing the proportion of approved total FGN budget allocated to health at the Federal level from 4.5per cent in 2018 to 10per cent in 2028.”
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Revitalising primary health care
Ahmed advocated reimagining PHC that will provide health at the lowest cost without compromising the standard and quality of products and services.
Faisal Shuaib, National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) CEO, reiterated that Abuja is committed to revitalising 10,000 primary health centres as part of the health sector’s next level agenda, per Nairametrics reporting
He listed successes in PHC to include
- Eradicating and sustaining a polio-free Nigeria
- Improving routine immunisation (from 33 per cent to 71 per cent in two years)
- Effective COVID-19 vaccination response (over 30 million doses administered)
- Improving accountability and implementing pragmatic PHC delivery
- Building technical support models
Nigeria’s 10-year strategy for reimagining PHC is based on a four-point agenda to improve PHC strategies and mobilise resources to standardise PHC practice.
