HFN Calls For Equitable Distribution Of Pro-health Taxes 

The Healthcare Federation of Nigeria (HFN), has called for a more robust and equitable distribution of pro-health taxes.

This call was made at the Health Financing Policy Dialogue which held in Abuja on Thursday.

The conference which was organized by PharmAccess Foundation, Nigeria Healthwatch and the World Bank hosted several distinguished dignitaries including the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Senator Ibrahim Yahaya Oloriegbe; the DG of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Prof Mohammed Nasir Sambo; the DG of the Budget Office of the Federation, Mr Ben Akabueze; the First Lady of Kebbi State, Dr Zainab Bagudu, amongst others.

The event was to look at new health financing approaches in Nigeria while focusing on the implementation of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage (SSB) tax in Nigeria.

President of the Healthcare Federation of Nigeria (HFN), Dr. Pamela Ajayi in his adress made a clarion call to use this opportunity of the implementation of the taxes to bridge the gap in the funding of Healthcare in Nigeria and move significantly towards achieving our SDG goals of universal health coverage and the Abuja Declaration.

She reflected on how the HFN has been a strong proponent for the implementation of the Pro Health Taxes, through writing to the Minister of Finance last year to support the increase of existing taxes on alcohol and tobacco and the introduction of new taxes on Sugar Sweetened Beverages (SSB), highlighting Countries who have successfully used these taxes to improve healthcare such as Philippines, Australia, and Korea amongst others.

HFN recommended that these taxes be used to provide coverage to the indigent population and to scale up mandatory health insurance coverage for all Nigerians with a percentage of the revenue being earmarked for specific impact health related schemes as well as research and development particularly in the areas of diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

She called for the creation of a legal framework to secure these funds “ring-fencing” them for healthcare and the formation of a committee with relevant stakeholders (both public and private) to ensure equitable and sustainable disbursement of the funds for the improvement of healthcare in the country.

The Country Director PharmAccess Foundation and Vice President of the Healthcare Federation of Nigeria (HFN), Mrs Njide Ndili, explaining the reason for the meeting, said Nigeria as a nation needs to identify innovative and sustainable ways to finance the health sector without reliance on donor funds as these funds should be an add on to the country’s sources of finance for health.

She talked about the need to discuss corporate funding for health and the needs to mobilize local resources for healthcare financing in the nation.

Also speaking in an interview at the event, Mr Kolapo Fapohunda, the West African Health Policy and Partnership Lead at Roche and Publicity Secretary of the Healthcare Federation of Nigeria (HFN) commended the government of Nigeria for the establishment and implementation of the SSB tax and encouraged the government to ensure the funds are earmarked for the health sector to improve access to equitable health for all Nigerians.

He further stated that as seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, the private sector has a major role to play in improving healthcare and ensuring health security of the nation, to which end he encouraged the government to continuously and proactively bring the private sector to the forefront, stating also that this is what the HFN stands for.

HFN is a coalition of Nigerian private healthcare sector stakeholders, an apolitical, non-partisan, non-profit organization speaking with a unified voice for the purpose of improving the Nigerian Health Sector through advocacy.