FG budgets N340m to prepare for next health crisis — but N500m for pilgrimages

Three hundred and forty million naira. That is all that Nigeria has set aside as federal funding to prepare for the next health crisis.
In the 2021 budget analysed by correspondents, only N4 million was allocated for epidemic preparedness, with the remaining funds scattered across various ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs).

Then, talk about priorities: The federal government allocated as much as N500 million to fund pilgrimages during the year — 47 percent more than its investment into readiness for the next health emergency.

With the country still reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic that has crushed human lives and crippled the economy, experts have continued to push for adequate health financing to prevent, detect and mitigate health emergencies.

A review of the 2021 budget shows that only one percent of all the allocations for projects relating to epidemic preparedness was identified as a clear line item in the budget, with some of the other provisions identified in cumbersome and unspecified projects.

The N4,047,000 allocation domiciled under the federal ministry of health was budgeted for ”epidemic preparedness, capacity development on COVID-19, Lassa Fever and Ebola”.

The implication is that unlike budget provisions with specific line items, these other projects cannot be easily monitored especially as they are regular features in the annual budgets studied by correspondents.