Speaking at the launch of the scorecard in Abuja on Tuesday, lead director for the Centre for Social Justice Eze Onyekpere said budgeting had to involve more stakeholders in the health sector to move forward. "We must insist on more openness and credibility and not just asking for more funds," he said. Dr Tunde Segun, country director for E4A, which runs the MamaYe project for better maternal and child health, called for government to open up budget process to participation, ensure timely information is given to the public on websites, ensure allocation is adequate and released on time.

 

The scorecard showed poor annual allocation to family planning was poor, per capita health budget fell below the $86 recommendation, the entire budget for health did not meet the 15% of general spending requested of national governments and there was no allocation at all to implement the National Health Act. Professor  Oladapo Ladipo, president of Association for Reproductive and Family Health (ARFH) called the omission a grave mistake but said the calls circular, which traditionally kicks off the budgeting process every July, is a window to ensure next budget includes funds to implement the National Health Act.

 

"We are under-funded and there is need for those in government both at the federal, state and local government level to increase health funding of the health sector," said Ladipo. "I feel very upset to see that Nigerian have to travel abroad for medical treatment and [every year] we are spending about $1 trillion. This is a huge drain on the resources we have here."

 

Among criteria for participation on which the budget failed, the federal health ministry and National Planning office were to have held public consultations with civil society organisations and communities while planning the budget, which also did not adhere to budget calendar, according to the scorecard. But it found the budget met all criteria for the National Assembly to receive memos and analysis and for the release of capital funding to the National Primary Health Care Development Agency.