The health sector is set to get a major boost as President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has promised to raise the budgetary allocation to the sector to 10 per cent.
Tinubu also promised to ramp up innovative funding for health, which will ensure that 50 million poor and vulnerable Nigerians are reached with health insurance.
Lafiya360 reports that the Special Adviser to the President on Health, Dr. Salma Anas, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday, during the Gatefield Health Summit with the theme: Taxing sugary drinks and other fiscal policies for healthcare financing.
She called for an up review of the current tax on Sugar Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) tax from N10 per litre to 20 per cent per litre.
Dr. Anas also urged the government to ensure that the revenue generated from the implementation of the tax should be channeled to the health sector, especially towards the prevention, treatment and management of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including cancer, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, stroke, among others.
She further noted that the country is beginning to see an increase in non-communicable diseases. She also stated that NCDs are a significantly cause of deaths, accounting for almost 29 per cent of deaths in the country, according to the 2018 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS).
She said, “We are witnessing a new era, with health care as one of our top priorities. We firmly believe that the health of our people is the true wealth of our nation. We cannot aspire to achieve productivity without health.
“Health is human capital development. And as the President will always say, without health, we cannot achieve any meaningful social economic development agenda.
“The challenge posed by sugary drinks and their impact on public health cannot be underemphasized. The consumption of sugary drinks, while they may seem very innocent, tasty and sweet, we must recognise the dangers embedded in it.
“We have excessive consumption of sugary drinks. It is imperative that we address these issues through evidence-based policy and public awareness.
“With President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s unwavering support, we will explore innovative strategies to generate revenue for healthcare initiatives. Nigeria is not doing well in terms of our allocation to health, with less than five percent, and in our innovative financial.
“The vision of renewed hope under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is based on the concept of Universal Health Coverage (UHC) to ensure that no one is left behind, and all have access in an equitable manner, to quality healthcare services, using the platforms of strengthened Primary Health Care (PHC) services, plus secondary health facilities, and linked with tertiary institutions.
“Health financing is important. Governance leadership structures must be transparent and accountable. Public health emergencies and responses must be well established at national and subnational level.”
She added, “We are working towards increasing capacities in local manufacture and production of pharmaceutical products, consumables, and others, including the assembly of sophisticated equipment in Nigeria. We need the collaboration of partners. The private sector will play a key role in getting most of our vision realized.
“We cannot achieve this without healthcare financing. The President himself, even before anybody advocated, has said he is going to increase allocation for health. He will start from 10 per cent of the total budgetary allocation. That is just the beginning. Based on our demonstration of capacity to utilize and indication of accountability, he is going to increase more. He has challenged us to demonstrate capacity.
“He is going to support mobilizing additional resources wherever they are because he wants to reach 50 million vulnerable Nigerians through insurance coverage.
“We cannot achieve this with one PHC per ward; we have to expand the space and have more than one PHC per ward. We need to have at least two PHC per ward. We also have to revamp our secondary health facilities to be an immediate referral from the PHCs, and connect them to the tertiary institutions so that we can provide mentorship and capacity building for us to achieve quality healthcare services.
“The sin tax and pro-health tax were initiated because of the burden on health. We will advocate to ensure that it is fully dedicated to health; if not all, at least most of it is dedicated to health. Countries that are rich are doing it. We need this in Nigeria to dedicate resources.
“Management and treatment of diabetes, cancer are very expensive and beyond the reach of most Nigerians; they cannot afford it. Hence, we need to channel the SSB tax funds to them. Mr President is a firm advocate of holistic healthcare, one that caters for every citizen, regardless of their background.
“Renewed hope must propel us to move forward into concrete action, and a shared vision and commitment to ensure we have an alliance across board beyond the health sector.”
The Founder of Medicaid Foundation, Dr. Zainab Bagudu, in her address said, “The SSBs tax was introduced after a lot of tussle and advocacy. It was introduced to the financial act. It is little but step by step we will get there. A lot of countries have adopted sugar taxation. Nigeria has many other tax sources like UBEC, TETFUND in education. We expect that the sugar tax will benefit the health sector.
“We must continue to advocate. We need to advocate that the SSB funds are earmarked for health, especially for non-communicable diseases. We need to mobilize more resources to improve the state of the health sector.”
In his remarks, President of the Nigeria Cancer Society and co-chair, National Action on Sugar Reduction Coalition, Dr. Adamu Alhassan Umar, called for a 20 per cent per litre increase in Sugar Sweetened Beverages (SSBs) tax for the government to achieve optimum health impact.
He said, “We urge the government to utilize SSB tax revenue for health and nutrition interventions. The revenue should be accounted for and used towards supplementing the health budget and providing nutrition for poor and vulnerable Nigerians at risk of malnutrition.
“Nigeria’s current tax on SSBs stands at about 6.7 per cent, which is below the effective and recommended tax rate. The government must tax SSBs at a minimum 20 per cent rate for it to achieve the intended positive health outcomes and impact.
“SSB taxes should be accounted for and used towards supplementing the health budget and providing nutrition for poor and vulnerable Nigerians at risk of malnutrition. The use of the additional financing for health could be instrumental in Nigeria’s Universal Health Coverage aspirations.
“In addition to the current fiscal policy measure, the government should recognize SSBs as a sin tax within a comprehensive excise duty bill, similar to Ghana’s recently introduced Excise Duty Amendment Act, which taxes SSBs at 20 per cent in response to the country’s public health crisis.”