Dr Ifeanyi Nsofor, Director of Policy and Advocacy of Nigeria Health Watch, has said without health the nation could do nothing, urging the government to invest in the health sector.
Nsofor said this on Wednesday in Abuja, at the 2019 State of States, Investing in People Forum, organsied by budgIT Nigeria.
News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that budgIT Nigeria is a civil tech organisation raising the standards for transparency, citizen engagement and accountability most especially in public finances.
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NAN reports that the theme for the 2019 Forum is “Investing in People”.
Nsofor, in a panel discussion, questioned who paid for health in Nigeria, stating that the National Health Account 2016 showed that total health expenditure was N3.7 trillion.
The director disclosed that the Federal Government contributed N306 billion, states contributed N146 billion and household expenditure was N2.8 trillion.
“We, those of us who pay out of pocket are the ones who should be worshipped by the Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and government because we pay for the bulk of healthcare’s over 70 per cent in the country,” he said.
Nsofor said that some of the reasons Nigerians were not willing to pay for health insurance could include knowledge and quality.
According to him, about 20 health insurance laws signed in Nigeria are mandatory.
The Nigeria Health Watch director quoted the Global Health Equity, saying “for there to be equity in healthcare, there must be equity in health education.”
Nsofor said that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) had developed a document called National Action Plan for Health Security for epidemic preparedness.
He stressed that for Nigeria to invest in people, the country must invest in preventing epidemics.
“You don’t know who will be affected when it happens,” he stressed.
The director said that Nigeria could channel the 38 per cent of the out-of-pocket expenditures to financing healthcare through health insurance mechanisms.
Also speaking, Ms Oreoluwa Akomolafe, Climate Change and International Development Project Officer at Ace Charity (NGO), talked about education with a case study of Learning Resource Centre, (LRC).
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Akomolafe shared Ace charity’s work through the LRC by supplementing learning school age children receive in public schools across three states in Nigeria in areas of literacy, numeracy and ICT.
Earlier, the organisers said that they analysed year-end 2017 financial statements of all 36 states within the broader scope of State Of States 2019.
They added that some findings were scary and questioned if Nigerians would believed?
They alleged that a state, for instance, spent N200 billion plus on recurrent expenditure in 2017 alone. (NAN)
