The Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors has faulted the five percent allocation to the health sector in the 2024 appropriation budget.
President Bola Tinubu last Wednesday presented a budget proposal of N27.5tn to the National Assembly for the fiscal year 2024.
A breakdown of the budget tagged ‘Budget of Renewed Hope,’ showed that the health sector got N1.33tn, equivalent to about five percent of the FG’s budget.
A further breakdown showed that N1.07tn was earmarked for the Federal Ministry of Health and its agencies (Recurrent and Capital expenditure); N137.21bn was provided for Gavi/ Immunisation funds, including Counterpart Funding for Donor Supported Programmes; and N125.74bn was earmarked for Basic Healthcare Provision Fund one percent of CRF.
The Special Adviser to the President on Health, Salma Anas, had in July 2023, said the President planned to increase the annual budgetary allocation to the health sector by 10 percent.
Speaking with our correspondent, the President of NARD, Dr Dele Abdullahi, said the five percent allocation to the health sector was a step backwards from the previous allocation to the health sector.
Abdullahi said, “To think that the National Council of Health recommended that a state of emergency should be declared in the health sector, it is actually appalling.
“We hope that the five percent will be used efficiently. As I said, the problem is not just how much is budgeted but how it is spent. Ninety percent of the time they have a budget and there is an expenditure and the efficiency of the budget is what we need to look into.
“The five percent is below the 2001 Abuja declaration of the Africa Union and it is below the eight percent that was budgeted last year for the health sector. We hope that the ulitilisation will prove us wrong.”
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