The Federal Ministry of Health had revealed its plans to establish 10,000 functional primary health care centres across the country between now and 2018.
The Head of Health Financing and Equity at the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr. Francis Ukwuije, said the Federal Government would have completed the building of functional health centres in each ward across the country in two years’ time. He also added that the Ministry of Health is committed to operationalising the National Health Act, signed in 2014.
Ukwuije stated that the 2016 health budget pegged at 4.13 per cent of the total budget was a far cry from the 15 per cent which African countries, including Nigeria, agreed on in Abuja 15 years ago.
In 2001, 4.5 per cent of Nigeria’s government expenditure was allocated to health. By 2015, this figure has only increased to 6.8 per cent of the total government expenditure and Nigeria’s 2016 Appropriation Bill allocates only 4.3 per cent to health.
“This is unacceptable,” said the Co-ordinator of the African Health, Human and Social Development (Afri-Dev) and Head of Secretariat of the Africa Coalition, Rotimi Sankore.
Sankore noted that Nigeria at the moment does not have what can be described as a health care system. “It simply does not exist,” he said.
The Chairman, Board of Trustees, Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria (HERFON), Dr. Ben Anyene, traced the origin of poor healthcare system in Nigeria to the 1999 Constitution, which leaves out the issue of well-being of Nigerians in its provisions.
“There is no single health provision in the 1999 Constitution,” he said.
