Nigeria’s National Assembly has raised the allocation for the country’s health sector by N300 billion in the 2025 approved budget.
On Thursday, the Senate and House of Representatives approved the 2025 budget, increasing it from N54.2 trillion to N54.9 trillion. In the earlier proposed budget for 2025, the government allocated N2.48 trillion for the health sector, which accounts for 5.18 per cent of the overall budget.
Nonetheless, this allocation did not meet the agreed-upon requirement established in the Abuja declaration for the health sector. The Abuja Declaration of 2001 represents a commitment from African Union nations to allocate at least 15 per cent of their yearly budgets to health initiatives.
The National Assembly indicated that the extra funds would assist health initiatives and tackle issues such as tuberculosis, HIV, malaria, and polio, previously funded by foreign aid from the US government before its suspension.
“It is to be noted that the recent action by the United States government to suspend further intervention in the Nigerian health sector through the provision of vaccines and drugs for malaria, polio, HIV, and tuberculosis using its agency USAID will have adverse effects on Nigerians affected by such diseases.
“On this note, the president proactively made a new provision of $200 million, which is equivalent to N300 billion in the service-wide votes to fill the gap created by the United States (US) government’s suspension of intervention in the Nigerian health sector to proactively address the above-mentioned health challenges that are currently being suffered by countries like Uganda and others.” Adeola Olamilekan, the chairman of the joint appropriation committee, said.
After taking office, US President Donald Trump enacted several executive orders that halted foreign aid, impacting various health programs in numerous nations, including Nigeria.
Nigeria has relied significantly on international funding for HIV initiatives, primarily through the US president’s emergency plan for AIDS relief (PEPFAR).
Additionally, the US government has put all personnel from the United States International Development Agency (USAID), which carries out many US health programs in Nigeria, on administrative leave.
