WHO Says Nigeria Far From Achieving 15% Abuja Declaration On Healthcare Funding

The World Health Organization (WHO) says Nigeria is still far from meeting the 15 percent 2001 Abuja Declaration on improving the health sector.

Dr Walter Mulombo, WHO Country Representative to Nigeria said this in Abuja in a meeting with newsmen.

In April 2001, heads of state of African Union countries met and pledged to set a target of allocating at least 15 per cent of their annual budget to improve the health sector

“In Nigeria where a proposed target was set that 15 per cent of total government budget should go to health, until today we are still far from achieving the target,’’ he said.

Mulombo advocated more funding of the health sector to meet the said target, saying the sector was not adequately funded, compared to areas such as defence, and army among others.

According to him, health is a human right and not a luxury or consumable, the more politically wise decisions the country makes now will benefit this nation.

“We need to start talking about human rights violations because it is not acceptable for any child to miss a vaccine,’’ he said.

He said that some areas where the organisation accessed showed that 80 per cent of the money went into tertiary hospitals.