President of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Ahmed Yakasai has decried the state of the health sector, saying the “situation is still terrible”.
Speaking on his assessment of the sector as Nigeria marks Independence in an interview in Lagos, Yakasai said the health sector is in dire need of funding.
According to him, while the World Health Organization (WHO) prescribes 15 percent budgetary allocation to the sector, the percentage of appropriation to the sector hovers around three to five percent.
Again, he noted that the government still foot-drags on the one per health allocation from the consolidated revenue fund even as the National Health Act is yet to be implemented.
He said: “The health sector is in dire need of funding. The budget of 3.6 per cent cannot take us to anywhere. We used to have five per cent which was still not adequate.
“We are asking for 15 per cent. If we cannot get 15 per cent, it should go up. Again, we don’t know where the Federal Government is as at now as far as the one per cent consolidated revenue allocation that is supposed to be accrued to the health care sector and then the implementation of the National Health Act.
“If they can implement, it would help somehow midway to be able to run the health care sector appropriately. But as it is now the sector is in a very bad shape”.
Yakasai urged the government to implement the prescription policy in the health sector which he noted would bring sanity into the drug distribution value chain and address the problem of drug abuse.
Join Daily Trust WhatsApp Community For Quick Access To News and Happenings Around You.
