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Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate
The Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Ali Pate, on Friday, lamented that only a paltry 15.06 per cent of the ministry’s capital allocation in the 2024 budget was released.
The minister attributed the delay in the release and cash backing of its capital allocation to the bottom-up cash plan policy of the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
Pate stated this while giving a breakdown of the performance of the ministry’s 2024 budget and projections for the 2025 fiscal year.
He stated that out of the N233.69bn allocated to the ministry for the execution of capital projects in 2024, only N26. 55bn, representing 15.06 per cent had been released to the ministry and utilised.
In his words, the ministry had not gotten a dime from the N57.39bn captured under the multilateral/bilateral loan for capital projects.
He explained that the total budgetary allocation to the ministry in 2024 stood at N242.14bn, made up of N7. 48bn for personnel, N998, 74m for overhead and N233.66bn for capital expenditure.
Pate said “The year 2025 proposed budget of the Ministry was prepared using the budget preparation system on the GIFTS platform. This is compatible with the National Development Plan 2021-2025 approach which demands justification and allocation of resources to projects and programmes in a given year based on needs and alignment with the policy of government, especially as encapsulated in the core objectives and execution priorities.
“The Federal Ministry of Health budget proposal for 2025 is based on the National Health Policy 2016 and is guided by the new Strategic Blueprint Initiative which are the health sector policy instruments for achieving the ministerial deliverables of the federal government and the global agenda of universal health coverage.”
Fielding questions from the lawmakers, the Minister said there was a need for Nigerians to unite for the promotion of the health sector in the country, adding that the current government was focusing on providing quality healthcare for Nigerians across public health institutions.
He said despite the challenges in the country, the health sector has improved tremendously with a lot of good things happening in the sector which are not known to Nigerians.
“We have the required qualified manpower in the country and that is why other countries are looking for our medical personnel,” he said.
