A civil group, Centre for Social Justice, CSJ, has proposed an agenda to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration to help address critical challenges facing Nigeria’s health sector.
According to the group, the agenda aims to tackle rising inflation, fuel subsidy removal, exchange rate unification, poor funding of the sector, implementation of the National Health Insurance Authority Act, accountability, health infrastructure, and the brain drain of health professionals.
The group’s agenda was contained in a statement issued on Monday by its Lead Director, Eze Onyekpere.
While noting that rising inflation had negatively impacted the health sector, CSJ said the agenda tasked the sector to ensure it makes resources available to keep pace with the inflationary spiral.
Concerning the removal of fuel subsidy, which it said is projected to save trillions of naira, the group emphasised the need to address the downsides and mitigate the impact of the policy on the health sector while raising questions about the proposed palliatives and the need for the health sector to advocate for its fair share of resources.
CSJ also noted that poor funding of the health sector and the fiscal crisis have resulted in low health indicators and high out-of-pocket health expenditures. The group, however, proposed attracting non-budgetary funds from the private sector and tapping into constituency project funds of legislators to increase funding for the sector.
The poor funding of the health sector and the fiscal crisis have resulted in low health indicators and high out-of-pocket health expenditures. The agenda proposes attracting non-budgetary funds from the private sector and tapping into constituency project funds of legislators to increase funding for the sector.
The group’s agenda also called for the activation of the mandatory health insurance scheme and the pooling of funds to reduce the high-level out-of-pocket health expenditure to provide social health insurance access to the poor and vulnerable without premiums.
As part of the measures to improve the utilisation and transparency of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, BHCPF, and ensure accountability in the health sector, CSJ also recommended the establishment of a Health Development Bank of Nigeria to provide funding for health infrastructure and equipment at affordable interest rates.