Bill Gates, Co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has highlighted Nigeria’s low tax collection rates as a significant challenge to financing essential sectors like health and education.
Speaking at Nutrivision 2024, a Pan-African youth dialogue on nutrition held in Abuja, Gates emphasised the need for Nigeria to increase its government funding to support critical public services.
Addressing potential financing mechanisms for large-scale public health interventions, Gates noted, “Over time, there are plans for Nigeria to fund the government more than it does today.
The actual tax collection in Nigeria is actually pretty low.” He added that for citizens to trust the government’s ability to deliver quality education and healthcare, they must first develop confidence in the effective management of these programmes.
Gates underscored the importance of operating an efficient primary healthcare system, stressing that well-run centres with adequately staffed employees are crucial.
“Our foundation is involved with a lot of the exemplars that are showing the way in terms of making sure the money is spent really well, running a very efficient primary healthcare system where the employees are doing great work, the centres are where they should be, you don’t have underloaded centres or overloaded centres,” Gates explained.
He expressed optimism that as Nigeria builds credibility in its health programmes, the country could achieve greater fiscal flexibility, allowing it to prioritise primary healthcare funding.
“It’s exciting that we are driving the credibility of those health programmes so that the citizens will feel like primary health care is amongst the priorities that should be very funded as you get some fiscal flexibility,” Gates added.
In addition to health, Gates also addressed Nigeria’s agricultural potential, suggesting that the country could shift from being a net food importer to a major food exporter. He highlighted the need for improved credit facilities, comprehensive soil surveys, and effective advisory services for farmers as critical factors in achieving this transformation.
“Nigeria today is a net food importer, and yet, given the geography, if the right credit facilities and advice to farmers, soil surveys, things are available, there is the opportunity for Nigeria to more than double its food output, which would be pretty transformative, because it would mean that you would be a net food exporter,” Gates remarked.
He further noted that instead of spending scarce foreign exchange on food imports, Nigeria could generate revenue by exporting agricultural products.
Gates also emphasised the importance of boosting agricultural productivity, particularly in rural and northern areas, as a means to improve incomes.
He suggested that by leveraging digital technologies and adopting improved seed varieties, Nigeria could trigger an agricultural “miracle” that would significantly boost the economy and address equity and nutrition challenges across the country.
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