Health challenges in Nigeria are surmountable – Minister
By Martha Agas
Prof. Mohammed Pate, Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, says the health challenges outlined in Nigeria’s Country Health System and Services Profiles (CHSSP) report are surmountable.
Pate, represented by Dr Kamil Shoretire, the ministry`s Director, Health, Planning, Research and Statistic, stated this during the official unveiling of Nigeria`s CHSSP, in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Nigeria`s CHSSP is the first edition of the African Health Observatory Platform on Health Systems and Policies (AHOP) which are comprehensive reviews of African countries’ health systems and services.
Nigeria’s profile was published by the Health Policy Research Group, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, which serves as the Nigerian National Centre for AHOP.
He said tackling the challenges required multi-stakeholder efforts, adding that the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative (NHSRII) was conceived by President Bola Tinubu’s administration to address them.
He said the initiative provides a unified roadmap to transform Nigeria’s health system through improved governance, reduced financial barriers, and systematic capacity building.
According to him, the Federal Government is addressing the challenges of low expenditure of government in the health sector, over dependence on private health facilities and high out-of-pocket expenditure through its reforms.
“We launched in the Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp) in August 2024 with a 1.2 billion U.S. dollars investment.
“The SWAp initiative ensures that all stakeholders – government, development partners, civil society and the private sector – operate under a single, unified strategy (One-plan, One-Budget, One-Conversation, One-M&E and One-Report).
“This coordination is essential to maximise efficiency and impact,” he said.
Pate said the government, in its drive to achieve universal health coverage by 2030, had increased enrolment in the National Health Insurance Scheme from 16.7 million to over 19.4 million within the past year.
He added that the government was strengthening primary health care through the Basic Health Care Provision Fund, disbursing N80 billion in 2024 and increasing it to N298.42 billion in 2025.
“Through the Presidential Initiative for unlocking the Health Care Value Chain, we have created a N5billion U.S. dollars project pipeline and attracted N2billion in foreign investments,” he said.
In his remarks, Prof. Obinna Onwujekwe, Director of Nigeria’s National Centre for AHOP, said that Nigeria`s CHSSP aims to provide standard evidence for informed policy making in the health sector.
Onwujekwe, also the Coordinator of the Health Policy Research Group, said the report assessed Nigeria’s health system performance and service delivery against Africa’s benchmarks to guide appropriate action.
NAN reports that according to the CHSSP, Nigeria’s health system is performing at only 45 per cent, below the African regional average of 56 per cent.
It revealed that Nigeria`s health system performance outputs, including access to, demand for, and quality of health services, had improved over the last decade but remain insufficient to achieve universal health coverage by 2030.
It said in spite of progress, Nigeria’s absolute coverage of essential services was relatively low at 1.7 per cent below the African regional average.
The report stated that private health providers currently deliver 70 per cent of all health services, in spite accounting for only 35 per cent of health facilities.
It further stated that about 80 per cent of Nigeria’s health infrastructure was dysfunctional, impeding health care delivery and resulting in losses of one billion U.S. dollars annually to outbound health tourism.
The report stated that out-of-pocket expenditure accounts for 75 per cent of total health spending, with only one in ten Nigerians having access to health insurance or risk-pooling schemes. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Yakubu Uba
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