…as the ninth National Assembly studies, reviews and analyses the 2020 budget, citizens and stakeholders, including health associations, of Nigeria call upon legislators to score a goal for health. A goal for health is the goal for every other sector – education, infrastructure, transport. A healthy population is a productive population.
With a gloomy 2020 global economic forecast and an annual population growth rate of 2.6 per cent, it is easy to be persuaded by the government’s disproportionate prioritisation of THE ECONOMY. Not surprisingly, the 2020 budget, dubbed the “Budget of Sustaining Growth and Job Creation”, similar to the 2014 budget, focuses squarely on economic development.
The 2020 budget has done justice to government guidelines on education and social inclusion. But where is health? The proposed 2020 budget of the Federal Ministry of Health is N427.30 billion, which amounts to just 4.14 per cent of the budget, as against the 4.75 per cent of the 2019 approved budget. This means that instead of moving forward, we have moved backwards, losing the match before the whistle is blown.
But perhaps more worrying is tthe fact hat the statutory transfer of the 1 per cent Consolidated Revenue Fund has been cut by half. The federal government has proposed N44.50 billion for the Basic Health Care Fund in the 2020 budget. This does not appear to be in accordance with the National Health Act . In the Act, the federal government ought to allocate at least 1 per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund for the BHCF, which should be about N81.55 billion.
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