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  • Health sector budget for 2018 not good enough – Practitioners

    Health sector budget for 2018 not good enough – Practitioners

    The 2018 budget proposal of N8.61 trillion presented to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari for review has continued to attract comments across the various divides.

    The National Association of Community Health Practitioners of Nigeria (NACHPN) decried the N340. 867 billion proposed for the health sector as not good enough, especially if the government intends to meet all its health programmes.

    The health budget 2018 represents 3.96 percent of the 2018 national budget. 

    The amount is also more in value when compared to 2017, but NACHPN said as it concerns health delivery is not good enough as it represents about 2% fall when compared with 2015 budget. 

    NACHPN further noted that percentage of the health budget to the national is less in proportion and far behind expectation as it relates to the Abuja declaration where it was agreed by all African countries that 15% of the national budget should go to the health sector.

    The group also doubted the possibility of the proposed appropriation to meet government planned health programmes like the revitalization of 10,000 primary health centres across the country among others. 

    Reading from a prepared speech yesterday In Abuja during a press briefing on 2018 budget proposal and health sector Organised by the Partnership for Advocacy in Child and Family Health at Scale, (PACFaH), an advocacy group in the country, Mr. Ibama Asiton-AS, NACHPN Acting General Secretary said the budget is not consolidating. 

    “We found that while the overall National budget of Nigeria has grown by 92% from N4..49 trillion in 2015 to N8.61 trillion in 2018, the same cannot be said of the health budget.

    “The health budget has only grown by a small-14%. The prosperity of the country reflected in the growth of the national budget has unfortunately not yet been fully felt in the health sector.

    “But there is a bigger problem. This problem is that the 2018 health budget as a proportion of total national budget is only 3.9 %. This is the lowest share of national budget allocated to the health sector in recent times. ”

    Asking some pertinent questions, NACHPN queried, “does the 2018 health budget provide enough resources to consolidate the work of the primary health care providers working within the policy of primary health care under one roof? Will this budget enable the Federal Minister of Health to keep his promise of revitalizing 10,000 Primary Health Centres? No, it is more like the health sector is a runner-up in this budgets taking consolation prize and not consolidating anything.”

    Comparing the country’s budget allocation to that of Ghana, a neighbouring country Ibama said the country is trailing behind as Ghana’s health budget is 7% of the total budget compared to Nigeria’s 3.9%.

    The meagre allocation to health, he argued is responsible for the country’s abysmal global rating of the health system in the 2017/2018 where Nigeria was ranked 136th out of 137 countries. 

    Also, the national president of NACHPN, Akor Okechukwu, said that the rating has necessitated the call for an increase in funding and ask for proper implementation of the government policies on health.

    He stressed that the current ranking of the country’s health system is certainly not the right place to be in the community of nations.

    “We, therefore, call on the National Assembly and all relevant stakeholders to do the needful by improving funding for Nigeria’s health system beginning from the 2018 Appropriation Bill.” 

    The moderator, Aremu Fatai, who is the acting country director of PACFAH@ Scale, said the conference came because of the shortfall in the budgetary allocation to the health sector.

    He said it was time to advocate for proper funding and timely release of funds to the health sector.

  • On Budget 2018

    On Budget 2018

    •Cautious optimism marks this year’s effort

    The 2018 Appropriation Bill laid by President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday November 7 appears to be a new resolve to break with the tardiness that had hitherto characterised the exercise.

    It is bad enough that the 2017 budget process kick-started by the President on December 14, 2016, was not signed into law until June 12 – nearly six months after. Just as bad is that the compromise reached on it not only fell apart soon after but has remained unresolved till date. That compromise was forged by the feuding parties in the heat of the disagreements over specific expenditure heads under which the executive could send virement proposals to the National Assembly. Instead of swift action and large-hearted compromises in the context of a recessionary economy, what we had was a turf war over nothing of substance.

    The foregoing, aside providing a context to understand the potential fate which awaits Budget 2018, should be seen as a reflection of the absurdity that has reduced the process to a charade.

    Set in the foreground of the nation’s exit from recession in the second quarter of the year, the 2018 budget promises to be a make or mar one. We must say of the prognosis that the outlook does look good – on paper. Oil prices have maintained a steady climb. Indeed, last Thursday, Nigeria’s Bonny Light stood at $61.72 a barrel. As for trade, the current year showed a lot of promise with even greater promise in the year ahead.  The National Bureau of Statistics, for instance, put the total value of exports for the first quarter of 2017 at N3,005.9 billion as against imports of N2,286.5 billion. As for the macro-economic environment, it looks just as promising with inflation dropping to 15.98 percent for the eighth consecutive time since January.

    More importantly, the 2018 Budget proposal appears to have been tempered with a good dose of realism. If only in the context of the current hunger to fast-track the development process, the entire aggregate expenditure of N8.612 trillion – representing an increase of 16 percent over the 2017 Budget – would seem modest.  Although, that recurrent component would again chalk up a disproportionate share of the pie, taking a whopping N3.494 trillion obviously shows how far the efforts to trim down the cost of governance still have to bear real fruits. The same is applicable to debt service, which at N2.014 trillion comes to a quarter of the entire budget.

    To renew the economy, the Federal Government proposes a capital spend (excluding the capital component of statutory transfers) of N2.428 trillion (30.8 percent) of the budget. Merely from the figures, the least that can be said is that they look generally impressive. Power, works and housing, for instance, gets the lion’s share of N555.88 billion; transportation, N263.10 billion; special intervention programmes N150 billion, and defence N145 billion. While the first two, constituting the growth drivers of the economy, deserve the special consideration, security exigencies and the prevalent poverty have rendered the latter two imperative. The same of course can be said of agriculture and rural development with allocation of N118.98 billion and water resources N95.11 billion.

    As for education which gets a vote of N61.73 billion, the usual temptation is to deprecate the allocation as “low” when in actual fact, the sum is actually the vote for running the ministry’s bureaucracy! This is where the vote of N109.06 billion for Universal Basic Education Commission, for instance, makes sense.

    The point is, nothing can be taken from the administration’s prerogative about what it chooses to see as its priorities. Hence the real issue for us is the haphazard implementation that has tended to reduce the exercise to a charade.

    A major factor that would prove critical to implementation is the revenue. Of the total N6,607 trillion projected, oil is expected to deliver N2.442 trillion into the federal kitty while N4.165 trillion is expected from non-oil as well as other revenue sources. For a budget with an in-built deficit of N2.005 trillion, the problem is not so much about the legitimate quest to wean the budget off its overt dependence on oil revenue, but the capacity to collect all due revenues in the situation that tax revenues currently stand at a paltry six percent of the Gross Domestic Product.

    A window into the other half of the dilemma was aptly captured by the President when he observed that of the projected pro-rated sum of N605.87 billion expected from independent revenue sources in the 2017 budget, only N155.14 billion was remitted by September –  a 74 percent shortfall. Such a situation can only mean trouble if allowed to persist in 2018. It explains why, barely six weeks to the end of the current budget, capital releases have not exceeded 25 percent.

    Finally, the nation waits to see whether the executive and the legislature have learnt useful lessons from the 2017 budget process in terms of being able to forge compromises to give Nigerians a clean and implementable budget. Considering the imperative to ramp up governance, it would be tragic for the feuding parties to allow ego to get in the way of their duty to the country.

  • Budget 2018: Better days are coming, say experts

    Budget 2018: Better days are coming, say experts

    THERE is optimism in the land over the 2018 budget.

    The hope of a better time is based on the fact that economic indicators have improved.

    Crude oil prices are rising and the naira exchange rate is stabilising; the future looks bright for the economy, frontline analyst Ayo Teriba said yesterday.

    The Economic Associates chief said:  ”I do not think there is much ground for disagreement between the Executive and Legislature. The most important thing is to find the money to implement the budget. The 2017 budget has not been fully funded. The 2017 budget faced revenue challenges because of low oil prices. We did less than $50 per barrel this year. The outlook for 2018 budget should be better. It is based on reality, not assumptions. I am more optimistic about the 2018 budget.”

    President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday presented an N8.6 trillion “Budget of Consolidation” to the National Assembly.

    “It’s realism to expect that 2018 budget will get better funding than the 2017,” Teriba said.

    Teriba said whereas the experience of 2017 was better than that of 2016, 2017 saw inflation  down but 2018 will be better.

    “We should expect things to be better in 2018 than even 2015. We want to see how quickly the National Assembly will pass the budget for implementation. The capital budget for 2017 that remains unimplemented, should be allowed to run in 2018, provided there is adequate cash for their execution,” he said, pointing out that things are looking up for the economy as seen in the rapid appreciation in the foreign reserves and stability in the exchange rate.

    To Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) President Dr. Frank Udemba Jacobs, Buhari should be praised on his promise to build the second Niger Bridge, reconstruct the East-West Road, North East Road and provide infrastructure.

    “Most gratifying is the fact that more infrastructure development projects are provided for in the proposed 2018 budget. There is plethora of evidence to support the fact that quantity and quality of infrastructure would directly raise the productivity of human capital, physical capital and hence, economic growth,” Jacobs said.

    He said the Price Waterhouse Cooper (PwC) 2014 report showed that road is the principal mode of transportation and accounts for 80 per cent of goods’ traffic.

    “With only 20 per cent of the network tarred, providing for development of road infrastructure in 2018 budget is a welcome development.  Interestingly, the renewed efforts of the government in infrastructure provision, especially road construction is impressive. I am aware of N100 billion presented to the Honorable Minister of Power, Works and Housing by the Federal Government for 25 roads across the six geo-political zones. We hope for a conscientious management of the funds so that Nigeria can have the maximum possible achievable number of roads,” he said.

    In Jacobs’ view, the construction of the 2nd Niger Bridge is well overdue, considering the fact that the first bridge was built in 1965 and the residual life span appears indeterminate at the moment.

    He said: “Besides avoiding the catastrophe of eventual collapse, the 2nd Niger Bridge will reduce the pressure on the first bridge and ensure a continuous movement of goods, people and capital across the region for many years to come..”

    Jacobs praised the government  for realising the huge cost of infrastructural gap the country is battling with and the need to give it priority in this year’s budget.  He noted that the resources needed to implement the budget are huge, and advised the government to pursue a public private partnership to maximise available capital for higher impact.

    To Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) President Mr. Abiodun Adesanya, the budget benchmark for oil at $45 per barrel is right, oil price is above $64 per barrel due to the geopolitical situation in the Middle East.

    According to Adesanya, two conditions will determine if the government would be able to implement the budget- Firstly, if the situation in the Middle East continues, oil price will continue to be high and that is good for Nigeria. Secondly, if the government would able to sustain peace in the Niger Delta and ensure that oil and gas infrastructure is not destroyed and production not disrupted by militants.

    However, he expressed concern that if oil price continues to be high, the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) may decide to cap Nigeria’s output. So, if these two conditions remain for a long time, government would be able to generate enough revenue to implement the budget. “The biggest threat to achieving the objectives of the budget is the resumption of vandalisation of production and export infrastructures,” he said.

    The Lead Director of the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), Mr. Eze Onyekpere, believes the early presentation of the budget estimates is a departure from previous years when it was presented very late in December. This will also restore the certainty of the financial year as anticipated in Section 318 of the Constitution as amended and the Financial Year Act, he said.

    Onyekwere said: “The promise of improvement in the Ease of Doing Business Reforms and Nigeria having moved 24 places to the 145th position in 2017. The promise to improve tax administration and move our Tax-GDP-Ratio above the current 6%, which is one of the lowest in the world, is one of the steps being taken for improvement in the productivity of agriculture and reduction of the food import bill are good as well as continued implementation of the Social Investment Programme.

    “But there are some key challenges and Concerns. The Medium Term Expenditure Framework 2018-2020 (MTEF) has not been approved and, as such, could not have been the basis for the preparation of the 2018 budget as required by S.18 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA).

    ”The poor implementation of the capital component of the 2017 federal budget which followed the trends in 2014, 2015 and 2016 financial years is a challenge. Only N450 billion has been released in a capital vote of N2.174 trillion.  This amounts to a paltry 20.70% of the capital vote, just one month before the end of the financial year by December 31, 2017. The released sum of N450 billion does not necessarily mean that the full sum has been cash backed and even if cash backed, could not have been fully utilized by the appropriate MDAs.”

    On the revenue framework, Onyekpere noted that the deficit was N2.005 trillion and “it is to be financed mainly by borrowing the sum of N1.699 trillion from external and domestic sources. The balance of the deficit in the sum of N306 billion will be financed from the proceeds of privatization of some non-oil assets by the Bureau of Public Enterprises. The proposed borrowing will further add to our already high debt profile. The deficit is 23.27% of the overall expenditure of N8.612 trillion. Again, the deficit is 30.35% of the retained revenue”.

    On the Expenditure Framework, Onyekpere said: “The first issue is that capital expenditure is to take 28% of the budget. But when capital expenditure in statutory transfers is included, it will come up to 30.8%.  While this looks good on paper, previous experience indicates that the capital vote is very poorly implemented. For instance, out of the 2017 capital vote, only N450 billion has been released in a capital vote of N2.174 trillion.  This amounts to a paltry 20.70% of the capital expenditure. It is not therefore sufficient to make proposals which may not be followed through at the end of the day. It is also imperative for the administration to ensure that the bulk of the capital expenditure is developmental rather than administrative.”

    “This is the only way it can have a direct impact on the majority of citizens,” he said.