Reps Push For Establishment Of National Health Fund

The House of Representatives, through its committee on AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, has advocated the establishment of a National Health Fund (NHF) to address the poor funding in the sector and rid the country of infectious and common diseases like Malaria as well as Tuberculosis.

The committee’s chairman, Hon. Godwin Amobi, made the advocacy at the panel meeting with the minister of health and social welfare, Prof. Ali Pate, at the National Assembly on Thursday.

Amobi called for increased funding for the health sector and jerking up Tuberculosis intervention funds from 18 to 35 per cent as earlier resolved by the House.

He disclosed that lawmakers looked at health development funding alternatives to cater to the country’s health needs quickly.

“We need to have a health trust fund in this country as soon as possible. In fact, in the next six months, we should establish a fund to tackle outbreaks of diseases and the common ones affecting us, like malaria and tuberculosis.

“A lot of countries in Africa are struggling at this moment. I just came back from Tanzania on the issue of health and materials. So, we need to have an education fund called TETFUND.

“It‘s very, very important. Looking at the challenges we are facing now, we do not want to continue facing them because they happen this way today. We don‘t know how it will happen tomorrow. If not, we have a minister already part of the system there; it won‘t be that easy for us,“ he added.

The minister of health, Pate, said the country was doing everything to address all funding and policy gaps to tackle the challenges in the healthcare system, particularly the cut in funding by the United States.

He said that while the United States‘ decision was sudden, its impact was reduced because of the various measures the federal government had put in place earlier through policies and interventions.

“So the changes that have occurred in the landscape that brought this conversation, particularly the adjustment in U.S. policy, indeed resulted in a significant shift in U.S. government policy. When we looked at it from our side, we understood it was a research opportunity.

“And we appreciate the contribution of the U.S. government, the billions of dollars of U.S. government and U.S. people‘s resources that help, but the responsibility to provide for the country is on us immediately.

“And that while we appreciate what has happened in the past, now we have to look at how we orient ourselves to improve and continue so that no Nigerian who is doing technical care will go without treatment for HIV, for instance, malaria or other conditions.

“This change occurred at a point when we were 18 months old. We were able to have a lot of financial support because health care was critical. Therefore, we have now found that we can do this as part of our investment plan. We now have another responsibility of putting more money into the Health Sector.

“So coming to the issues of HIV and tuberculosis in Nigeria, for 20, 25 years, external parties have primarily funded HIV, TB, and malaria in Nigeria. And we appreciate the contributions that they have made because they save lives.

„We need to produce local anti-malaria kits as it is the best way to reduce the prevalence rate. N40 billion has been appropriated for malaria vaccine, but it is not enough,“ Pate added.