![]()
Nigeria urged to boost local funding for healthcare as foreign aid declines
Nigeria must take charge of its healthcare funding, says presidential adviser Dr Salma Anas. At a conference in Abuja on June 7, 2024, she warned that donor fatigue is real and foreign aid is shrinking. The country’s health system is at a crossroads, with critical services at risk if funding gaps widen.
"Nigeria can no longer rely on external benevolence to build its healthcare system."
Highlights
- Dr Salma Anas stated that foreign aid to Nigeria’s health sector has dropped by 15–20%, threatening key programmes like HIV, malaria, and immunisation.
- She praised Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative for focusing on domestic resource mobilisation.
- Expanding the Basic Health Care Provision Fund from 1% to 2% of the Consolidated Revenue Fund is expected to double fiscal space for health.
- Additional reforms include expanding mandatory health insurance and increasing Sugar-Sweetened Beverage taxes to fund non-communicable disease prevention.
- State governors were urged to meet the Abuja Declaration target of allocating 15% of budgets to health and to strengthen accountability and local ownership.
