CSO hails Senate over passage of bill increasing health fund to 2% CRF

Executive Director of the Vaccine Network for Disease Control, Dr Chika Offor, has commended the Senate for passing the National Health Act Amendment Bill seeking to increase the Basic Health Care Provision Fund from one per cent to two per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund. Offor described the development as a major breakthrough for […]

Executive Director of the Vaccine Network for Disease Control, Dr Chika Offor, has commended the Senate for passing the National Health Act Amendment Bill seeking to increase the Basic Health Care Provision Fund from one per cent to two per cent of the Consolidated Revenue Fund.

Offor described the development as a major breakthrough for Nigeria’s healthcare system, saying the increase would strengthen primary healthcare centres, improve access to care for children and pregnant women, and save lives across the country.

Speaking in Abuja during a visit by health sector stakeholders to the Senate, Offor emotionally praised the passage of the bill and the role played by Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health (Secondary and Tertiary), Senator Ipalibo Harry Banigo, in pushing for the legislation.

She said, “Before we can do anything, the policy must be passed. Today is a happy day for us as CSO, because our vaccine champion, today has supported the passing of a bill by the Senate to increase the National Health Act from one per cent to two per cent.

“Do you know what this means? It means that the primary health care centres will be strengthened. It means that children can access care. It means that lives will be saved. It means that women can do their pregnancy with happiness.

“It means many things, even many things that I cannot begin to say. I want to shed tears, but I’m shedding tears of joy that the Senate has passed this bill. What we are waiting for now is the concurrence by the House of Representatives.

“So I want to say thank you to her, because she is the one that pushed this bill. She is the one that helped us to make sure that this bill saw the light of day. We want to thank the Senate for seeing the value, the value of this bill as against the health of Nigerian children, Nigeria in general.

“The expectation that we have is that as the Senate has passed this bill with ease, with the full consciousness of the value that it’s bringing, so also the House of Representatives will concur. And once they concur, there’s hope for the Nigerian child.

“The President is the father of all. He is my father, he is your father, he is the father of the Nigerian children. Why will he not assent? He will assent with joy.

“I have no problem with that. I am sure that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will assent, because it has to do with his children.”

The Senate had earlier assured stakeholders in the health sector that President Bola Tinubu would assent to the amendment bill after concurrence by the House of Representatives.

Speaking during the meeting, Banigo said the current one per cent allocation under the 2014 National Health Act had become inadequate in view of Nigeria’s growing population and increasing healthcare challenges.

She said, “We had a National Health Act in 2014, and there was a provision for basic health care. But we know that this was only one per cent of the consolidated revenue fund. Our country’s population has been growing, and we still have a lot of preventable diseases that we should really attend to.

“But particularly, what the Basic Health Care Provision Fund can do in addressing the issues at the primary health care level. This is because it has pathways that fund all the primary health care centres across our 774 local government areas directly.”

Banigo added that the fund also supports the National Health Insurance Authority, disease control programmes and emergency healthcare interventions.

“It has now been taken by the Senate. We are also going to get concurrence from the House of Representatives, at which point it will now be taken to the President and Commander-in-Chief, Bola Tinubu, who is a very health-positive president. We have no doubts that he is going to assent to it,” she said.

She also stressed the need for improved funding for immunisation and vaccine storage at primary healthcare centres.

“Vaccines are a very important part of the care we give to our children and pregnant women to prevent a whole lot of preventable sicknesses,” the senator added.

Also speaking, Prof. Emmanuel Alhassan of the Global Health Advocacy Incubator described the amendment as a transformative reform capable of strengthening Nigeria’s commitment to domestic healthcare financing and improving healthcare delivery nationwide.

Head of the Health Sector Reform Coalition, Dr Lecky Muhammed, said the increase in the BHCPF allocation would improve affordability of healthcare services, strengthen primary healthcare systems and advance universal health coverage.

Representative of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Garba Bakunawa, said the increased allocation would enhance frontline healthcare delivery, improve immunisation services and expand access to essential healthcare, especially in rural and underserved communities.