By Paul Effiong, Abuja
Cordinating Minister of Health, Professor Ali Pate has justified his ministry’s inability to utilise the 2025 capital budget, having received only N36 million out of the N218 billion appropriated for the year.
The minister disclosed this yesterday during the 2026 budget defence session with the House Committee on Healthcare Services, held at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja.
The minister said the ministry’s entire personnel budget was released and fully expended, adding that same could not be said of the capital component due largely to the bottom-up cash planning system operated by the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation.
Professor Pate also disclosed that the policies and strategies underpinning the 2026 budget are derived from the 2026–2028 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and Fiscal Strategy Paper, MTEF/FSP, which outlines the federal government’s development priorities.
He, however, informed that his ministry’s 2026 proposed budget was prepared using the Government Integrated Financial Management Information System, GIFMIS, in line with the National Development Plan 2021–2025, which emphasised justification and allocation of resources to projects and programmes based on actual needs.
He added that the proposal aligns with the policy thrust and execution priorities of the federal government, as well as the ministerial deliverables of the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
The minister noted that the 2026 budget proposal is anchored on the 2016 National Health Policy and guided by the Federal Ministry of Health’s Strategic Blueprint Initiatives, which serve as key policy instruments for achieving ministerial deliverables and advancing the global agenda of the Universal Health Coverage.
Meanwhile the minister also stated: “Nigeria’s health sector is guided by Vision 20:2020, the Medium-Term National Development Plan, NDP, 2021–2025, and the National Strategic Health Development Plan, NSHDP, II.
Earlier in his remarks, Chairman of the House Committee on Healthcare Services, Amos Magaji directed the minister to urgently furnish the committee with the relevant documents relating to donor funds received by the ministry and details of how such funds were utilised under the period.
