Isaac Anumihe and Uche Usim, Abuja
Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma yesterday said that despite the reduction by 3.2 per cent of the aggregate Federal Government expenditure from N9.1 trillion in the 2018 budget to N8.83 trillion in the 2019 budget proposal, an increase of 8 per cent was proposed in the 2019 budget over the amounts allocated for health in the 2018 budget.
This was even as the Minister gave the assurance that the government was working to improve the country’s mortality rate, which he said was frighteningly among the highest on the continent.
The Minister, who said this in Abuja while declaring open the Value for Money in the Health Sector workshop noted that there is need to ensure that these increased expenditures are actually improving healthcare outcomes. According to him, N43.5 billion has been set aside for routine immunisation for 2019.
“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,” Udoma stated.
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 maximise the values derivable from the allocations to the healthcare sector through improved efficiency in the use of budgeted funds.”
He stressed that the workshop was to enable the participants 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, he said, places a very high premium on improving healthcare delivery and social welfare of the people.
“This is why in the administration’s economic blueprint, the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), one of the three principal objectives of the plan is ‘investing in our people’,” he explained.