Nigeria to unveil universal health coverage investment initiative

Ahead of the commemoration of the universal health coverage day, coordinating minister of health and social welfare alongside other health agencies are set to unveil the Nigeria health sector renewal investment initiative to push the commitment of the government on achieving basic healthcare for vulnerable populations.

This message formed the crux of a policy dialogue with civil society, development partners and health experts on getting to the goal of universal health coverage.

Health correspondent Kemi Balogun reports that Nigeria’s budget for the health sector still remains low causing a strain on the existing infrastructure and leaving the health sector in dire need of improvement

The health sector gets a 1.3trillion Naira allocation which represents just close to 4.83 5percent of the entire budget size

With the budget still far from achieving the Abuja declaration in 2001, the country seems to be facing a lot more hardship at getting more improvement in one of its most important sectors.

22 years later and the discussions revolving around funding the health sector is still the same

The dialogue led by the Nigeria UHC forum here is to examine these issues as experts here believe that Nigeria still lags behind in achieving major health goals as they look forward to more improvements.

Nigeria’s coordinating minister of health and social welfare alongside the executive director of the primary health care development agency are championing the move ahead of the launch of an initiative that is expected to get the nation’s health sector the needed attention through adequate funding.

The expectations from this event is to ensure that there is a change in the narrative and ensure that primary healthcare structure remains at the pillar of this change.