Bimbola Oyesola
As a fallout of the negative impact of COVID-19 and to guarantee at least basic income security and access to essential health care for all in 2020 alone, Nigeria and other developing countries should invest approximately $1.2 trillion – on average 3.8 per cent of their GDP, says International Labour Organization (ILO).
According to ILO, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the social protection financing gap has increased by approximately 30 per cent according to Financing gaps in social protection: Global estimate and strategies for developing countries in light of the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.
The global work body said this is the result of the increased need for healthcare services and income security for workers who lost their jobs during the lockdown and the reduction of GDP caused by the crisis.
It noted that the situation is particularly dire in low-income countries like Nigeria who would need to spend nearly 16 per cent of their GDP to close the gap – around $80 billion.
“Regionally, the relative burden of closing the gap is particularly high in Central and Western Asia, Northern Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa (between 8 per cent and 9 per cent of their GDP),” ILO said.
It stated that even before the COVID-19 crisis, the global community was failing to live up to the social protection legal and policy commitments it had made in the wake of the last global catastrophe – the 2008 financial crisis.
“Closing the annual financing gap requires international resources based on global solidarity,” said Shahrashoub Razavi, Director of the ILO’s Social Protection Department.
He added that Currently, only 45 per cent of the global population is effectively covered by at least one social protection benefit. The remaining population – more than four billion people – is completely unprotected.
National and international measures to reduce the economic impact of the COVID-19 crisis have provided short-term financing assistance.