The minister of health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire, and the Director General, Nigerian Center for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu have called on the federal government to increase funding to the healthcare sector to tackle the challenges facing it.
They made the call during the 2021 budget defence before the House of Representatives joint committee on health.
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The DG NCDC, Dr. Chikwe Ihekweazu, particularly raised the alarm over the removal of the 2.5 percent healthcare security funds from its 2021 budget.
According to him, the security fund was a special fund which is being utilised during public health emergencies.
“On the impact of the removal of the 2.5% allocation of the primary health care fund that was supposed to be allocated under the 2018 manual for the implementation of that funds, this provision has been withdrawn.
“We do not have any funds available for health security under the revised basic healthcare provision funds.
“I want to highlight what this portends for the country as we go into 2021 and the impact it will have,” he said.
On his part, the minister said the COVID-19 pandemic had affected many countries of the world including Nigeria.
As such, the country must respond to the needs and challenges of its public health.
He said that Nigeria must remain vigilant in the face of rising COVID-19 cases in other parts of the world.
“We are always cautious on COVID-19.
“The volume of flight between our country and other countries particularly Europe and South America is very high, and I also want to put on record, we should not rest on our oars in protecting our country against the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The COVID-19 pandemic led to the budget revision.
“As you know, the whole budget had to be brought down and adapted to the situation. This happened also in many countries.
“COVID-19 also accorded a new opportunity for every country to review their health systems, including our own, to see where our weaknesses are and also to see what necessary remediation are there.
“Part of the development and progress we have made so far is that we started from the two molecular laboratories we have and we are approaching 70 molecular laboratories in the country.
“This fantastic network has been able to create logistics for collection of samples and testing.
“There is also a promise of ICUs in every tertiary institution and isolation centres.
“We had a meeting with all the CMDs on the standardization of ICUs,” he said.
