Introduction:
Nigeria, a country located in West African region is touted as the most populous country in Africa with over 140 million people. It is a richly blessed country with a large oil and mineral deposits and over natural resources and was presently quoted to be the biggest economy in West Africa. Unfortunately, the Nigerian health sector, a foremost social service sector has never really fared well, principally due to its chronic underfunding. The WHO (2000) ranked the Nigerian Health system performance at a paltry 187th position among the 191 United Nations member.
It is rather not surprising that health indices data show that women and children from poor families die from avoidable health problems. According to the Global Burden of …show more content…
The public health system is decentralized with the federal, state and local governments all having some sort of responsibility with function, stewardship, financing and service provision. In addition, there are existing private healthcare providers and the informal health care sector made up of traditional healers, birth attendants and patent medicine dealers (Onotai et al, 2012). The Federal Ministry of health (FMOH) has an overall policy making function and provides services through the tertiary hospitals and federal medical centers, the State Ministry of Health are responsible for the provision and regulation of the secondary level of care (general hospitals) while the local governments are in charge of primary health centers (Rais, 1991). In spite of the fact that the local governments have the principle obligation of dealing with the primary health centers (PHCs), all the three levels of government and different organizations take an interest in the administration of the PHC. This at times results in duplication, convergence, and discombobulating of roles (World Bank, …show more content…
It has three basic functions of collecting revenues, pooling resources, and purchasing services”. Achieving a successful health care financing system in Nigeria has been and continues to be a huge challenge. Adinma et al (2010) identified unbridled corruption, limited institutional capacity, economic and political instability as factors working against effective health care financing in Nigeria. Health care financing in Nigeria is a mix of tax revenue, out-of-pocket expenditure, donor funding and health insurance made up of social and community insurance mechanisms (Olakunde et al, 2012). Health care expenditure in Nigeria has remained very low, accounting for only 2.7% of the Total Federal Government Budget in the year 2000 (Adinma et al, 2010) and 7.2% in 2007 (Olakunde et al, 2012), a far cry from the WHO recommended
Nigeria, a country located in West African region is touted as the most populous country in Africa with over 140 million people. It is a richly blessed country with a large oil and mineral deposits and over natural resources and was presently quoted to be the biggest economy in West Africa. Unfortunately, the Nigerian health sector, a foremost social service sector has never really fared well, principally due to its chronic underfunding. The WHO (2000) ranked the Nigerian Health system performance at a paltry 187th position among the 191 United Nations member.
It is rather not surprising that health indices data show that women and children from poor families die from avoidable health problems. According to the Global Burden of …show more content…
The public health system is decentralized with the federal, state and local governments all having some sort of responsibility with function, stewardship, financing and service provision. In addition, there are existing private healthcare providers and the informal health care sector made up of traditional healers, birth attendants and patent medicine dealers (Onotai et al, 2012). The Federal Ministry of health (FMOH) has an overall policy making function and provides services through the tertiary hospitals and federal medical centers, the State Ministry of Health are responsible for the provision and regulation of the secondary level of care (general hospitals) while the local governments are in charge of primary health centers (Rais, 1991). In spite of the fact that the local governments have the principle obligation of dealing with the primary health centers (PHCs), all the three levels of government and different organizations take an interest in the administration of the PHC. This at times results in duplication, convergence, and discombobulating of roles (World Bank, …show more content…
It has three basic functions of collecting revenues, pooling resources, and purchasing services”. Achieving a successful health care financing system in Nigeria has been and continues to be a huge challenge. Adinma et al (2010) identified unbridled corruption, limited institutional capacity, economic and political instability as factors working against effective health care financing in Nigeria. Health care financing in Nigeria is a mix of tax revenue, out-of-pocket expenditure, donor funding and health insurance made up of social and community insurance mechanisms (Olakunde et al, 2012). Health care expenditure in Nigeria has remained very low, accounting for only 2.7% of the Total Federal Government Budget in the year 2000 (Adinma et al, 2010) and 7.2% in 2007 (Olakunde et al, 2012), a far cry from the WHO recommended