Abuja’s Nixon Luxury hotel will play host to hundreds of players in the health sector from across Nigeria and Africa on Tuesday and Wednesday.
From an aggregate expenditure of N10.33 trillion, President Buhari on Tuesday proposed N46 billion for health – almost six times less than N262 billion for Works and Housing for capital expenditure. Much earlier in the year, Mr Buhari acknowledged the need to address Nigeria’s gross out-of-pocket spending for health. He chose this year’s study topic for the NIPSS – Nigeria’s foremost think-thank institution – to be on finding solutions for funding healthcare in the country.
Apart from poor funding, other challenges to health financing include untimely and non-release of budgetary allocations for health, a situation attributed to Nigeria’s grim health indices.According to the World Health Organization, Nigeria is rated 187th out of 191 countries in terms of health care delivery.
To take things a notch higher, this year’s dialogue seeks to stimulate discussions on the current status, challenges, opportunities and recommend actionable steps and strategies to better healthcare financing and support towards improved UHC, organizers said.
I’ll be on the panel discussing Health Insurance: Engaging the Informal Sector for Maximum Performance