By Paul Effiong
Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Mohammed Pate, yesterday, decried the partial release of funds to his ministry, informing that in 2024, only 15.06 percent of the total capital allocation was made available for capital projects.
Speaking when he appeared before a joint Senate and the House of Representatives Committees on Health for the defense of his ministry’s 2025 budget, Pate informed that out of the N233.656 billion allocated to the minustry for capital projects in 2024, only N26. 552 billion has been released.
According to him, the ministry is yet to recieve a single kobo from the N57.393 billion captured under the multilateral/bilateral loan for capital projects.
He informed that the total budget in 2024 stood at N242, 141,830,564.51 made up of N7, 476,463,610 for personnel, N998,739,547 for overhead and N233,656,627,407.51 for capital.
According to him, the amount was slightly improved upon in the 2025 budget
to N10,361, 373,890.69 for personnel, N1,590, 382,403 for overhead and N248,316, 907,133 for capital.
Pate told the lawmakers that Nigeria’s health sector is guided by Vision20:2020, medium term (National Development Plan 2021-2025 and the National Strategic Health Development Plan.
He explained that the overreaching goal of the constitution and the National Health Act is to guarantee the right to health for all Nigerians, adding that the 2016 national health policy provides an implementation framework to translate the provisions of the National Health Act and Sustainable Development Goals into the wellbeing of all citizens.
He stressed that the tenets of the universal health coverage are central to the goals of the national health policy which is to strengthen the health system, particularly the primary health care system to deliver quality, efficient, equitable, accessible, acceptable and comprehensive health care to all Nigerians.
He explained that the policies and strategies of the 2025 budget are derivable from the 2025-2027 Medium Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper which outlined the development priorities of government.
