Nasarawa lawmakers push bigger health spending for 2017 budget

Nasarawa state legislature has vowed it would push for increased health funding in the state’s 2017 and push for its release and implementation through the executive, ending years of no release of funding Speaking at a retreat in Abuja for Nasarawa state executives and legislators, Mohammed Okpede, chairman of health committee in the Nasarawa state […]

Nasarawa state legislature has vowed it would push for increased health funding in the state’s 2017 and push for its release and implementation through the executive, ending years of no release of funding

Speaking at a retreat in Abuja for Nasarawa state executives and legislators, Mohammed Okpede, chairman of health committee in the Nasarawa state assembly said, “When the project [health budget in 2017] comes, we will look at it. We will appropriate and make sure implementation is followed.”

“And when it is released, we will do the follow-up,” he emphasised.

In an interview with Daily Trust, he said having legislators and executives at the retreat organised by the Health Reform Foundation of Nigeria (HERFON) and in close contact with civil society groups advocating for increased health funding had helped them understand the pressure.

A report by the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health into how Nasarawa financed its health sector between 2012 and 2014 showed less than half of allocation appropriated for health in each year was actually paid out to ministries, departments and agencies.

Only N2.4 billion out of N5.4b was released in 2012; N4.2b out of N8.2b was released in 2013 and N4.3b out of N11.8b was released in 2014.

Nasarawa also appropriated N40m in each of the three years for family planning through its health ministry but no funding was ever released, the report showed.

Similarly, no requisition was ever put through by its Primary Health Care Development Agency, with an allocation of N1m for 2014, as international partners took responsibility.

The state has the highest proportion of women of reproductive age who want to use modern contraception but can’t get access in the entire northeast, and only 16 out of 100 women of the same age bracket can get services they need to plan their families.

In latest budget, Nasarawa released one-fourth of the N20m it appropriated for family planning services.

“Nasarawa is a success story to have even budgeted for family planning,” said Dr Hassana Adamu, programme manager for HERFON in Nasarawa, where it and PACFaH work, in addition to Oyo and Kaduna.

“Many states have fallen [on contraceptive prevalence rate] and we are trying to bring them to optimum. We are anchoring family planning, but what we are talking about is really family health.”