2018 budget proposal: Health practitioners, workers demand more funding of health sector

Health professionals, practitioners and workers have expressed dismay over the poor allocation for the health sector in the proposed 2018 budgetary allocation and demanded for more funding of the sector.

Specifically, the National Association of Community Health Practitioners of Nigeria (NACHPN), and the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Heath at Scale (PACFaH), called on the National Assembly to consider scaling up the health sector budget to reflect the Abuja declaration.

NACHPN comprises the Community Health Officers (CHOs), Community Health Extension Workers (CHEWs), and Junior Community Health  Care Professionals. They are working in partnership with PACFaH to demand for increase in the allocation for heath.

The Abuja Declaration document, signed by African governments and leaders in 2001 and called The Abuja Declaration, stipulates that African countries should not allocate less than 15 per cent of total budget to health.

In their position presented to journalists in Abuja on the 2018 budget proposal, the group said the 3.9 per cent share of total budget proposed for health  is not in fulfilment of the Abuja declaration.