Nigeria’s Health Sector Transiting from Donor Dependency to Strategic Co-investment, FG Declares

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

The Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare has said that it’s focusing on deepening  partnerships; bilateral, multilateral, and civil society collaboration with the aim of transitioning from dependency to strategic co-investment.

Speaking at the 9th Annual Health Conference of the Association of Nigeria Health Journalists (ANHEJ) held in Abuja yesterday, the Minister of State Dr. Iziaq Adekunle Salako said the ministry of welcomes continued technical and catalytic financing from partners such as Gavi, the Global Fund, the World Bank and other bilateral agencies.

However, Salako said the federal government was asking development partners to deploy more resources into systems strengthening, risk-pooling, and catalytic instruments that accelerate domestic financing rather than funding recurrent costs alone.

He said that Nigeria has been a significant recipient of foreign health assistance, with the health sector benefiting immensely from the generosity of bilateral and multilateral partners.

For instance,  he said the United States government, through PEPFAR, has invested over $6 billion in Nigeria’s HIV/AIDS response since 2004, with annual allocations averaging $400-450 million in recent years.

In the fiscal year, he said USAID (Now DoS) allocated approximately $535 million for health programmes in Nigeria, covering HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and maternal and child health initiatives.

Similarly, the minister said the Global Fund has disbursed over $2.5 billion to Nigeria since 2003 to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, making Nigeria one of the largest recipients globally.

According to him, “the World Bank currently supports our health sector with approximately $1.5 billion through various projects, including the $500 million Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus Programme and the $820 million International Development Association credit for primary healthcare strengthening.”

Similarly, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has committed over $1.2 billion to Nigeria since 2001 for immunisation programmes,

Salako said by catalytic financing, the federal government intends to redirect larger amounts of private investment to projects with significant social/environmental impact, often in areas traditional investors avoid, creating a multiplier effect by de-risking opportunities and making them commercially viable.

He said the ministry is, “actively diversifying financing sources by structuring public–private partnerships for vaccine logistics, laboratory networks, and innovative last-mile service delivery; engaging domestic capital markets for health investment through social impact bonds and concessional financing blended with private capital; and exploring earmarked levies, implemented equitably.”

The minister said that the government will continuously align domestic investments to high-impact interventions: routine immunisation, maternal and newborn care, malaria prevention, HIV treatment scale-up, TB case-finding,  nutrition programmes, and deploying funds where they avert the most deaths and disability.

He charged health journalists to assist in the efforts to transition from donor funding to domestically financed health programmes through accurate reporting on funding flows and programme impact.

In her presentation, the Special Adviser to the President on Health, Dr. Salma Ibrahim, said that President Tinubu is pursuing, in collaboration with the National Assembly, a policy plan to be able to leverage more on opportunities and resources that will be deployed to the health sector.

She said that the federal government is actively engaging in conversations around innovative financing, particularly the Sugar and Sweetened Beverages (SSB) Tax.

“While the current specific excise tax of N10 per litre was a good start to discourage excessive sugar consumption and combat rising Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), its impact is undermined because the revenue is often not explicitly earmarked for health. We are currently advocating strongly in the National Assembly for two critical changes.

“Dedicating this revenue specifically to public health initiatives, particularly the prevention and management of Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) like diabetes and hypertension and raising the tax rate substantially to meet global best practices,” she said.

Ibrahim said the World Health Organisation (WHO) has recommended a rate of at least 20 per cent of the retail price to meaningfully influence consumption.

She said that while the current tax is about N10 per litre of sugar and sweetened beverages, government is seeking to get all drinks that contain sugar and are sweetened, “not just beverages, but all drinks that are done with sugar to be under the tax net

“So it used to be 10 per cent, and the idea is to impose tax on sweetened drinks and then deploy the resources into the health sector,” she said.

President of ANHEJ, Mr. Joseph Kadiri, expressed the readiness of journalists in contributing their quota towards improving the nation’s health sector through credible health analysis and reporting.

Speaking on the theme: ‘Domestic Resource Mobilisation in the Face of Dwindling Foreign Grants and Aid’, Kadiri said the aim is to engage and hold health stakeholders accountable through a national conversation that is crucial to the survival, stability, and progress of our country’s health sector.