Wednesday March 20, 2019 10:00AM/ Ministry of Budget and National Planning Press Release
Improving healthcare is one of the priorities of the
Government of President Muhammadu Buhari, and that is why in spite of the very
tight revenue constraints and the demands of other competing sectors, the
Health sector has continued to receive increased allocations.
The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator
Udoma Udo Udoma, who stated this in Abuja on Tuesday while declaring open the
Value for Money in Health Sector Workshop, said this can be seen in the
prioritization of Health related expenditures in all the national budgets.
He explained that even with a reduction by 3.2% of the
aggregate Federal Government expenditure, from N9.120trillion in the 2018
Budget to N8.83 trillion in the 2019 budget proposal, an increase of 8% was
proposed in the 2019 Budget over the amounts allocated for health in the 2018
Budget.
He however added that there is a need to ensure that
these increased expenditures are actually improving healthcare outcomes.
“It is a workshop that will focus on how we can
improve value for money. As we are able to demonstrate and show improved
healthcare outcomes for the money we are currently spending, governments at all
levels will be encouraged to further increase funding to the health sector.
While indicating that government will continue to be
supportive of increased funding to the health sector, and would like the
workshop to examine and advise on innovative ways of doing so, he stated that
“it is even more critical that we institute key reforms to maximize the values
derivable from the allocations to the healthcare sector through improved
efficiency in the use of budgeted funds”.
He stressed that the workshop is to enable the
participants to deliberate on how to achieve better outcomes for expenditure in
the health sector.
“This is an important issue as most developing and
middle-income countries, particularly those like Nigeria with large and rapidly
growing populations, need to find more effective and efficient ways of
delivering quality health services to their citizens”, he added.
The Buhari Administration places a very high premium
on improving health care delivery and social welfare of the people.
“This is why in the Administration’s economic
blueprint, the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (the ‘ERGP’) one of the three principal
objectives of the Plan is “Investing in our People”.
In particular, in the ERGP the Federal Government
commits the country to investing in health and education in order to meet the
international targets set under the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Under the ERGP the country is committed to improving
‘the accessibility, affordability and quality of healthcare’.
The Minister drew attention to the fact that apart
from the Federal Government, the various State Governments as well as Local
Government Councils have also been prioritizing health expenditures in their
budgets since responsibility for the health sector is constitutionally shared
amongst all the tiers government.
Spending by the sub-national governments, he stated,
must therefore be taken into account in any assessment of the amount of public
funds that is being expended in the health sector. “Indeed, no meaningful
discussion about improving healthcare in Nigeria can take place without
involving the sub-national governments.”
That is why the organizers of this workshop, the
Collaborative African Budget Reform Initiative (CABRI), also invited State
representatives to participate in the event, he pointed out.
He hoped that the outcomes of the workshop will help
shape public sector expenditure management practices at both the Federal and
the Sub-national levels, with respect to the health sector.
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