By Racheal Abujah
Stakeholders in the health sector have called for stronger public communication on health taxes to enable Nigerians to understand their purpose and benefits.
They made the call at a national stakeholder co-creation workshop on Wednesday in Abuja to realign health taxes with sustainable health financing and the prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
Chief Moji Makanjuola, Chief Executive Officer, International Society for Media in Public Health (ISMPH), said citizens needed clear explanations on why health taxes were being introduced and the health problems they were intended to address.
Makanjuola, who is also Chair of Nigeria Universal Health Coverage (UHC), said they also needed to understand how the revenue generated would be used.
She said citizens needed clear explanations on why health taxes were being introduced, the health problems they were intended to address and how the revenue generated would be used.
“Without effective communication, Nigerians can perceive health taxes simply as another financial burden rather than a public health intervention designed to protect lives and improve healthcare.
“Communication must go beyond government offices and major cities to reach vulnerable populations, including people in rural communities who continue to bear the burden of out-of-pocket healthcare costs,” she said.
Makanjuola called for collaboration among journalists, young people, parents, consumers, community leaders and policymakers to make the health-tax conversation understandable and relevant.
She said citizens should be treated as co-creators of the reform and be able to see how the revenue generated could contribute to improved healthcare.
Dr Mustapha Lecky, Chairman, Health System Reform Coalition of Nigeria (HSRCN), said health taxes represented a strategic policy instrument.
Lecky said that the instrument could simultaneously reduce consumption of unhealthy products and generate resources to strengthen the health system.
He said evidence-based health taxation could support Nigeria’s progress towards universal health coverage while protecting lives.
He urged stakeholders to work collaboratively towards policies that were equitable, sustainable, evidence-driven and responsive to Nigeria’s health and development needs.
According to him, civil society organisations will continue to support advocacy, public awareness, accountability and citizen engagement to ensure that health-tax reforms deliver measurable benefits to Nigerians.
Dr Kumanan Rasanathan, Executive Director, Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, said stakeholders needed to focus on securing legislative approval for health taxes.
Rasanathan said that they also needed to focus on demonstrating tangible benefits to Nigerians who paid the taxes.
He said countries had shown that taxes on harmful products could reduce consumption while generating revenue.
He, however, said Nigeria needed to examine whether existing taxes were being implemented at levels capable of achieving their full public health and revenue potential.
“The current fiscal environment creates an opportunity to consider health taxes as part of a broader domestic resource mobilisation strategy.
“Research should not remain in academic publications but should contribute to changes in policy and practice,” he said.
He called for stronger collaboration among government, civil society, communities, finance and health authorities, stressing that health tax reform could not be achieved by the health sector alone.
He also urged stakeholders to consider concerns about the potential impact of consumption taxes on poorer households and clearly demonstrate how the revenue generated would contribute to improved health and access to healthcare.
Dr Kelechi Ohiri, Director-General, National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), said health-tax reform should not be regarded as the responsibility of any single ministry or sector.
Ohiri said effective reform required coordinated action involving the ministries of Health, Finance, Budget and National Planning, the private sector, civil society, media and other stakeholders.
He described health taxes as both a public-health intervention capable of influencing unhealthy consumption and an opportunity for domestic resource mobilisation.
Ohiri said Nigeria faced the dual challenge of infectious diseases, maternal and child mortality, alongside a rising burden of non-communicable diseases associated with consumption of products such as sugar-sweetened beverages, tobacco and alcohol.
He said the proposed reform of the existing sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax provided an opportunity to strengthen Nigeria’s health-tax framework.
He said the proposed reforms sought to strengthen the existing SSB tax framework and allocate a portion of resources generated to health promotion, disease prevention and primary healthcare.
The NHIA urged stakeholders to focus on what would be required to move health-tax reforms through Nigeria’s policy, legal, fiscal and administrative systems and translate them into effective implementation.
He identified policy leadership, institutional capacity, public financial management and accountability mechanisms as critical to ensuring that additional revenue translated into improved health outcomes.
Dr Pavel Ursu, WHO Country Representative in Nigeria, said evidence alone would not be sufficient to deliver effective health-tax reforms.
Ursu said evidence had to be translated into policy through an understanding of Nigeria’s political economy, institutions and stakeholders capable of influencing implementation.
He said health-tax reforms required the involvement of the ministries of health and finance, lawmakers, civil society, media and other relevant stakeholders.
According to him, research should be demand-driven and designed to inform policy dialogue while responding to local realities.
Ursu said implementation should be viewed as a continuous process in which stakeholders, institutional responsibilities and the operating environment were regularly assessed.
Dr Yewande Ogundeji, Managing Principal, Health Strategy and Delivery Foundation (HSDF), said the objective of the workshop was to translate emerging evidence and research findings into practical pathways for action.
Ogundeji urged participants to contribute their institutional knowledge and experience to identify what was feasible, the constraints to implementation and the changes required to make health-tax reforms workable.
She said the workshop would seek to develop an operational strategy covering short-, medium- and long-term actions, with clear priority interventions, responsible institutions, timelines and measurable indicators.
According to her, recommendations should identify who would act, what approvals would be required, possible barriers and realistic first steps towards execution.
She said the discussions would also consider evidence and capacity needs, advocacy, legal and policy changes, as well as management and accountability mechanisms.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the workshop is expected to strengthen collaboration among government, civil society, the media, development partners, researchers and other stakeholders.
The collaboration is geared towards sustainable health financing and prevention of NCDs in Nigeria. (NAN)
Edited by Kadiri Abdulrahman
Comments