76 CSOs demand N980bn for health in 2017

Seventy-six Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have urged the Federal Government to allocate N980.85bn to the Health Sector in 2017 budget saying the N257.38bn allocated to the sector in 2016 budget was grossly inadequate. The CSOs made the call in a memorandum titled “Health Sector Medium Term Sector Strategies (MTSS) 2017-2019” which they presented in Abuja. […]

Seventy-six Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) have urged the Federal Government to allocate N980.85bn to the Health Sector in 2017 budget saying the N257.38bn allocated to the sector in 2016 budget was grossly inadequate.
The CSOs made the call in a memorandum titled “Health Sector Medium Term Sector Strategies (MTSS) 2017-2019” which they presented in Abuja.
 Lead Director of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) Barrister Eze Onyekpere said the success of any budget worldwide is measured by the impact it made on the citizenry it was meant to serve and that the total for the sector in 2016 budget being 4.13 percent overall budget is 11 percent short of the expected 15 percent of overall budget.
 “We are proposing N980.85bn for 2017, N940.59bn for 2018 and N958.07bn for 2019. This is based on 15 percent of the total budget as agreed in Abuja Declaration (2001) and the parameters are based on the projected revenue in the 2017-2019 MTEF,” Onyekpere said.
 Also at the presentation were the Chairman BOT of the Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria (HERFON) Dr. Ben Anyene, Technical Advisor WAVA Laz Ude Eze, Chairman Civil Society Consultative Group on Health Financing Dr. Francis Ohanyido and Country Representative of the One Campaign Edwin Ikhuoria and other CSOs working in the health sector.
 Dr. Anyene said the memorandum was to correct the mistakes of the past where the comment of stakeholders did not influence budget decisions hence there working ahead so that what is needed to be done in preparing the budget.
The memorandum among others also suggests the implementation of the National Health Act setting aside not less than one percent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund to the Basic Health Care Provisions Fund