Kano state NANNM Chairman, Comrade Bello Sa’id during a press conference on the 2020 Health Budget at the 2019 Delegates Conference in Kano
The Nigeria Association of Nurses and Midwives (NANNM) Kano state, has raised concerns over the capacity of the proposed 2020 health budget by the federal government of Nigeria to address the health needs of almost 200 million Nigerians. The concerns were raised by the Chairman of the Association, Comrade Bello Nuraddeen Sa’id during the 2019 quadrennial state delegate conference held in Kano state in collaboration with the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health at scale PAS Project (PACFaH@Scale) on October 17, 2019.
In his welcome remark to declare open the conference, the Chairman stated that the 2020 budget proposal on the health sector was only 4.14%, adding that it is less than what was allocated in 2019. He disclosed that despite increase in Nigeria’s population, the health budget on capital expenditure is being reduced annually. Similarly, He expressed dismay with the pattern of non-release and return to treasury of public funds meant for the health sector attributing the nonchalant attitude to gross mismanagement and poor foresight of health managers.
Comrade Sa’id also gave an example of the year 2018 budgetary allocation, where he said the capital allocation to the health sector was N141.62 billion. However, the amount released was only N21.62 billion which stands at a mere 15.3% of the capital expenditure for the health sector. The chairman noted that out of the N21.62 billion released, only N13.35 billion which is 9.4%, was utilised while the sum of N8.27 billion had to be returned to the treasury. He called on stakeholders to demand more funding to be allocated to the health sector considering the rising population. This is in addition to timely release of funds to enable the country achieve the set goals of improving the health status of its citizens.
The state delegate conference is conducted after every four years in the month of October. It is an event where all the members of the Association meet to discuss issues and elect new executives that will run the affairs of the association for the next four years and it is carried out in all the states of the federation.
This year, the activity was held in Kano state in collaboration with Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health at scale PAS Project (PACFaH@Scale). The conference’s highest priority was budget allocation to the health sector.
The delegate conference was attended nurses, midwives, government officials, business men and women, labor unions, professional bodies/associations, those in the academic community s and the Media.
