The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire says the country is yet to meet the pledge by African governments to allocate 15 per cent of annual budget to health.
Ehanire said this in Abuja when he featured on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) ministerial forum in Abuja.
NAN reports that the 2001 African Union (AU) meeting in Abuja which hosted heads of states, pledged to devote at least 15 per cent of their annual budgets to the health sector.
However, even with the increase from N9 billion health allocation in 2022 to N1.58 trillion projected budget for 2023, the target is not achieved, as it is not up to 15 per cent of the country’s budget as pledged.
The minister, therefore, explained that there are many competing priorities, as many things needed to be attended to.
He said that the budget of issues that relate to education, sanitation and hygiene, among others, were not added to health budget because such issues were being handled by either the Ministry of Education or Ministry of Agriculture and Environment.
He, however, said “we are pleased to have an increase in the budgetary allocation this year over last year. (NAN)
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