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The federal government has earmarked N43.5 billion for routine immunisation programme in 2019.
The Director General Budget Office of the Federation Ben Akabueze made this disclosure in Abuja at the Nigeria Value for Money in the Health Sector Workshop.
In his presentation, the DG budget said there was a need to scale-up allocation to primary health care and also called for equity in the allocation of funds to different areas in the health sector.
Akabueze explained because Nigeria was operating a deficit budget, it has become very difficult for the country to further borrow to fund projects in the health sector.
According to him, this has placed a limitation on “how much we can borrow.”
To change things, he said Nigeria must seek ways to attract other sources of funding.
Minister for Budget and National Planning Senator Udoma Udo Udoma assured the federal government will prioritise health expenditures in the 2019 budget cycle.
The Minister also disclosed the government was working to improve the country’s mortality rate which is among the lowest in the continent.
The interest in allocating more funds to health was triggered by “the constrained fiscal space occasioned by drop in oil price and disruption to crude production continues to reflect on revenues.
“The present administration came to meet a very constrained fiscal space. Revenue dropped from N10.07 trillion in 2014 fiscal year to as low as N5.68 trillion in 2016.
“Even though it recovered somewhat to N7.17 trillion and N9.17 trillion in 2019 and 2018, it is still low compared to the amount in 2014,” Udoma said.
He also lamented “dwindling donor funding has further compounded the matters with the country’s transition from the status of a poor country to a developing economy.”
