COMMUNIQUE FROM THE CIVIL SOCIETY SUMMIT ON THE 2024 FEDERAL HEALTH BUDGET

The Right To Health Cluster of civil society organizations anchored by the Centre for Social Justice held a civil society summit on the implementation of the 2024 health budget on the 13^th of February 2024 at De Silver Green Luxury Hotel, Abuja. Participation was drawn from the Centre for Social Justice, cluster members across the 7 focal states of the project, key government agencies and the media. The Lead Director of the Centre for Social Justice, Barr Eze Onyekpere welcomed everyone to the summit and gave the rationale for the summit. He noted that the dwindling resources of government is a reason why stakeholders must demand for transparency and accountability in the implementation of the health budget. He noted that while the advocacy for more money to health will be continued, stakeholders must also demand that more healthcare be delivered from the available resources. He noted that strategies must de deployed to increase the absorptive capacities of the health MDAs and put an end to the incidence of high unspent funds despite declining health indicators.

At the end of the summit, the following recommendations were made:

1. The immediate funding and take-off of the Vulnerable Group Fund should be done. A huge percentage of Nigerians are poor and vulnerable and cannot be left out of health insurance coverage. The NHIA should liase with other MDAs of the federal government to achieve this.
2. A definite and clear roadmap for actualizing the compulsory health insurance should be developed and implemented. The compulsory nature of health insurance should not only be in the books, but should also be put into practice.
3. Increased advocacy and awareness creation on health insurance should be done.
4. The NHIA should strengthen monitoring and evaluation activities as it concerns health insurance service delivery to enrollees/beneficiaries at the health facilities.
5. The Nigerian Governors’ Forum, traditional and religious leaders should be further engaged to promote & support sensitization programmes and activities on health insurance at the sub-national Level.
6. The Federal Ministry of Health should deploy adequate steps to ensure that it fully utilizes the funds released to it for the delivery of healthcare services in Nigeria. The practice of returning huge unspent funds does not speak well of the ministry, hence this practice must not repeat itself in the utilization of the 2024 health budget. Procurement and other policy reforms that would fast track procurement processes should be done. This will increase the absorptive capacity for funds utilization and enhance efficiency and service delivery.
7. The allocation of only 4.64% of the total budget size to the federal ministry of health falls short of the 15% target of the Abuja Declaration. Civil society organizations should support the federal ministry of health to advocate for an increase in the share of the budget dedicate to healthcare.
8. The ministry of health and all her departments and agencies should increase the level of transparency and accountability through enhanced oversight supervision of her projects.
9. The Ministerial Oversight Committee of the BHCPF should devise technological methods (electronic fund tracking mechanisms) to enhance transparency and accountability of the disbursed funds.
10. Well-meaning individuals and corporate organizations should be encouraged to contribute to the BHCPF to achieve its objectives and goals.