Published in Governance
Amid the crisis in the health sector, the Nigerian government led by President Muhammed Buhari has approved a total of N44.33 billion for Ministries, Departments, and Agencies as travel costs.
February 11th, 2023
THE media has monitored and reported the dilapidated state of some of Nigeria’s hospitals across the country.
Amid the crisis in the health sector, the Nigerian government led by President Muhammed Buhari has approved a total of N44.33 billion for Ministries, Departments, and Agencies as travel costs.
Dataphyte analysis of the 2023 budget has revealed that the MDAs will be receiving a total of N44.33 billion as the cost of travel, while no adequate provision was made for the revitalisation of public health facilities across the county.
The genesis
In January 2017, the Nigerian government kicked off a scheme to revitalise over 10,000 Primary Healthcare Centers (PHCs) across the 36 states, including the Federal Capital Territory, to enhance the Universal Health Coverage in Afrtica’s most populous nation.
However, from 2017 till now, the purpose of the scheme has not been realised by the Federal Government due to the persisting challenges facing it.
Primary health care facilities across the country are still begging for attention due to inadequate financing and lack of manpower.
Reports have shown deplorable conditions of these healthcare facilities across the 36 states, including the FCT. Lack of funds and poor rehabilitation have been identified as major challenges facing the sector – which have not been duly addressed.
Health budget
A Dataphyte review of the 2023 approved budget reveals that a total of N1.07 trillion was allocated to the Federal Ministry of Health – about 4.9 percent of the total approved budget.
The Ministry of Health has witnessed budget increases in the last two years, but the state of public health care system has remained poor.
For instance, in 2021, N514 billion was earmarked for the health ministry, which was 3.7 percent of the budget at that time.
In 2022, a total of N714.5 billion was allotted to the health ministry. In the 2023 budget, the ministry received a total of N1.07 trillion which is about 49.75 percent increment when compared with the preceding year.
Despite this, there haven’t been major changes, instead, reports continue to project the deplorable condition of the public health care system, especially PHCs, across the country.
Cost of governance
While the Ministry of Health got N1.07 trillion in 2023, a Dataphyte review of the MDAs’ budgets revealed that there was no adequate provision for the construction and renovation of PHCs in the 2023 approved budget.
Rather, a total of N44.3 billion was approved by the presidency for some MDAs for local and international travels in 2023.
For example, the Ministry of Defence received the highest amount for transport and travels. The ministry intends to spend a sum of N9.95 billion on local and international travels in 2023.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be spending N5.69 billion on travels. At the same time, the office of the National Security Adviser intends to spend N4.23 billion on local and international trips.
The office of the presidency and the Federal Ministry of Police Affairs budgeted N4.3 billion and N3.09 billion respectively for local and international trips.
While the cost of travel and transport may continue to rise, construction of PHCs has tanked.
Implications
According to a claim fact checked by Africacheck on the cost of building a Primary Health Center in Nigeria, it was claimed that building a PHC would cost between N18 million and N22 million.
Analysis reveals that if a PHC building costs N18 million, it means a total of 2,461 PHCs can be built with N44.33 bilion budgted for travels, some of which are for conferences and seminars that can be done online.
Also, if the construction of a PHC building would cost N 22 million, it means a total of 2,013 PHCs can be built with the N.44.33 travel cost.
Experts knock FG
The Managing Director/CBO, Optimus by Afrinvest, Mr Ayodeji Eboh, advised that since the country was facing challenges at the moment, such amounts should be reviewed and added to the capital expenditure instead of spending it travel on travels.
“The country is faced with some challenges. Allocating such an amount for travels is not commendable as such an amount can be added to the capital budget instead of spending it on travels only,” he said.
A medical doctor, Charles Dibia, said with the current state of hospitals and PHCs, Nigeria must completely ban trips by civil servants and channel the funds to health facilities.
“As a nation, we need to cut down on meaningless trips like these, and channel the funds to lives by way of PHCs and hospitals to reduce high mortality rate in the country,” he added. “President Buhari banned trips by civil servants when he came to power in 2015. Unfortunately, he was the first to viiolate his own order.”
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Amid the crisis in the health sector, the Nigerian government led by President Muhammed Buhari has approved a total of N44.33 billion for Ministries, Departments, and Agencies as travel costs.
