A new health report by The ONE Campaign has revealed that Nigeria's health budget as a percentage of the total budget is declining and that public health allocations by state governments per person have fallen from $10.8 per person in 2020 to $8.5 per person in 2022.

The report released yesterday and titled "Post-Pandemic Health Financing by State Governments in Nigeria 2020 to 2022," showed that the federal and several state governments in Nigeria continue to fall short of the 15 per cent continental health funding benchmark for African countries.

It showed that only Kaduna and Sokoto states consistently met the 15 per cent health allocation target between 2020 and 2022 while the remaining 34 States failed to meet the benchmark.

The document also revealed that while the combined budgetary allocations of all 36 states increased by 12.8 per cent between 2020 and 2022, in real terms, the health sector received less funding in 2022 than in 2020 when adjusted for inflation.

Nigeria country director at The ONE Campaign, Stanley Achonu, said: "Nigeria's health indicators are reportedly some of the worst in Africa. COVID-19 has exposed additional gaps in the country's healthcare system and has shown why the sector requires ambitious strategies and adequate funding in order to serve the masses, particularly the poor and most vulnerable in society."

According to him, it is therefore, extremely worrisome that some state governments are slashing their annual allocations to health when they should be striving to meet the Abuja Declaration's 15 per cent funding benchmark.

"As the 2023 budget season approaches, governments at all levels must prioritize health care and allocate a significant portion of their budget to improving healthcare delivery. Adequate disbursements should follow these allocations to finance health infrastructure and programs," said Achonu.