Africa’s largest economies, Nigeria and South Africa are worlds apart when it comes to caring about the health of their citizens. While South Africa has spent $46 billion on health between 2014 and 2017, Nigeria has only managed $3 billion within the period, according to data compiled by Business Day.
This is even though Nigeria is home to some 180 million people, which is three times the size of South Africa’s 55 million population. In 2018, South Africa estimated its expenditure on health to be USD 14 billion and this will account for 12 per cent of its budget, according to Treasury.gov.za.
Nigeria on the other hand costed its expenditure on health to be USD 949 million which will account for just 3.9 per cent of its total budget, according to data obtained from the budget office. In 2017, SA’s health expenditure stood at 13billion dollars and this accounted for 12% of its total budget, Nigeria’s expenditure on health was USD 847million and this accounted for about 4.17 per cent of its total budget.
READ ALSO: Why Nigeria’s domestic institutional investors need to focus on infrastructure and blended finance
In 2016, SA’s expenditure on health stood at 12 billion USD and accounted for 12 per cent of its total budget while Nigeria allotted USD 696 million and it accounted for 4.1 per cent of its total budget. In 2015, South Africa’s expenditure on health stood at USD 11billion and this accounted for 9 per cent of its total budget while Nigeria’s expenditure on health stood at USD 724 million and this accounted for about 5.7 per cent of its total budget.
While Nigeria’s overall budget has grown by 92 per cent from N4.49 trillion in 2015 to N8.621 trillion in 2018, this cannot be said of its health sector instead, its health budget has fallen by 14 per cent. South-Africa has grown its health allocation by 27 per cent to USD 14 billion in 2018 from USD 11billion in 2015. “Corruption depletes the budgetary estimate that has been made,” said Olaniyi Olatunde, a doctor at Araba specialist hospital, as even the limited funds allocated to the health sector are not been channelled properly.
He added that for a vital sector such as the health sector, there needs to be a clear distinction between public funds and private pocket as funds allocated for capital projects do not get to the contractors that carry out these projects. The World Health Organization (WHO) during the BAMACO initiative instructed countries of the world that their health care expenditure to GDP should be up to 15%. This is because an improvement in a country’s health care will result in an improvement in the health of its citizen which in turn will improve productivity as there is a link between health and economic performance.
Statistical data polled across several African countries shows that in 2016, Rwanda allocated 18 per cent of its national budget to health, while Botswana and Malawi have allocated 17.8 per cent and 17.1 per cent respectively. Zambia is 16.4 per cent, while Burkina Faso is 15per cent. Meanwhile, Nigeria which hosted the “2001 Abuja declaration”, where it pledged alongside other member states of the African Union to commit at least 15per cent of their national budget to health, is still at 4.3 per cent, with no trajectory towards achieving the 15 per cent target.
READ ALSO: SA, Nigeria, dominate as fintech firms grab 33% off $543mn raised in 2019
The above figure shows that Nigeria’s expenditure on its health sector is 11 percentage points lower than the World Health Organization (WHO) standard of 15 per cent. The health sector is critical and drives other sectors of a country, as only healthy people can plan for security, development and economics advancement. The Nigerian health sector has been under-funded over time, according to Mercy Ada Ayinwe, a health economist at the University of Benin. “Thus, if we compare the health status of the populace of SA to that of Nigeria, we will find out that there are still lots of health problems in the country in which case we would have expected that they live up to the standard stated by WHO,” Ayinwe said.
“Additionally, there is a positive correlation between good health care facility, productivity and output as the health sector is a very vital indicator to human capital formation alongside education,” Ayinwe added. However, there are other key sectors in the economy apart from the health sector that also requires rapt attention said Ayodele Akinwunmi, Head of research FSDH merchant bank.
“The government is facing a revenue crisis and that informs the need for rationing of limited resources among key sectors,” Akinwunmi. He added also that a critical comparison shows that not just the health sector, other key sectors such as Defence and Education don’t meet up to the United Nations standard hence the need to put into consideration other key sectors of the economy.
Hammered by a decline in petrodollars brought on by lower oil prices and production shut-ins inflicted by agitated militants in the oil-rich delta, Nigeria has seen public revenues slump to new lows, given that oil exports account for 80 per cent of government earnings.
READ ALSO: Unveiling Nigeria’s 2021 budget
However, declining revenues have not stopped 74-year old President Muhammadu Buhari from proposing a record budget in the three years of his administration to spend his country’s way out of its first economic recession in a quarter of a century, according to NBS data. To bridge a ballooning revenue shortfall, the country has racked up debt at the fastest pace in its democratic era, causing the International Monetary Fund to warn of a potential debt crisis last month.
The economy has since exited recession, following two successive quarters of expansion in the second and third quarters of 2017. Further comparative analysis done showed that despite Nigeria’s low expenditure on health about its total budget, Nigeria’s expenditure on health has overtime outweigh that of the Kenyan economy(A country regarded as the third-largest in the sub-Saharan region).
In 2015, Kenya’s expenditure on health was $572 million and this accounted for 3.9 per cent of its total budget. In 2016 and 2017, Kenya’s expenditure on health about its total budget stood at 3.59 per cent and 3.78 per cent respectively. This figures places its expenditure on health far below the World health standard of 15 per cent and also below Nigeria’s expenditure on health.
ANI MICHAEL
