– As Baale, Ojo, Oyawole insist health must be treated as national investment
Leading pharmaceutical and healthcare stakeholders have expressed concern over the Federal Government’s proposed ₦2.48 trillion allocation to the health sector in the 2026 national budget, warning that although the figure appears substantial in nominal terms, it remains insufficient when weighed against the country’s population size, disease burden and development aspirations.
President Tinubu presented the 2026 national budget of ₦58.47 trillion to a joint session of the National Assembly on 19 December 2025. Of the total proposal, ₦2.48 trillion – approximately 4.2 per cent – was allocated to the health sector. Findings by Pharmanews indicate that this allocation falls significantly short of the 15 per cent benchmark agreed upon by African leaders more than two decades ago under the Abuja Declaration.
Speaking separately with Pharmanews, the President and Chairman of the Governing Council of the Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy, Prof. Lere Baale; the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Merit Healthcare Limited, Dr Lolu Ojo; and a Fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Pharm. Anthony Oyawole, described the allocation as one that warrants deeper national reflection.
They cautioned that inadequate and poorly utilised funding may continue to constrain meaningful transformation of the healthcare system unless implemented strategically across all tiers of government.
Prof. Baale emphasised that health expenditure should not be regarded as consumption spending but as productivity infrastructure essential to economic growth, human capital development and national security. He stressed that Nigeria’s allocation remains well below the 15 per cent target contained in the Abuja Declaration of 2001, to which the country is a signatory.
“Health is not consumption expenditure; it is productivity infrastructure. Any nation that underinvests in health ultimately underinvests in its economic growth, human capital and national security,” he said.
“At roughly 4 per cent, Nigeria’s federal health allocation remains significantly below the 15 per cent benchmark articulated in the Abuja Declaration of 2001. While fiscal realities differ today from 2001, the strategic principle remains valid: a country of over 200 million people cannot sustainably allocate single-digit percentages to health and expect optimal outcomes.”
According to him, the critical question is not whether ₦2.48 trillion appears large, but whether it is sufficient when measured against rapid population growth, rising epidemiological pressures, inflation in global medical supply chains, worsening workforce attrition driven by brain drain, deteriorating infrastructure and heavy reliance on imported pharmaceuticals.
The NAPharm president noted that percentage allocation alone does not tell the full story. He warned that if most funding is absorbed by salaries and overheads without significant capital investment in infrastructure, diagnostics, digital health systems and pharmaceutical manufacturing, the sector will achieve only limited multiplier effects.
He further argued that Nigeria’s heavy reliance on imported finished medicines and near-total dependence on imported active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) constitute a strategic vulnerability in an increasingly unstable global supply environment, insisting that medical security must be treated as national security.
Baale therefore called for deliberate investment in local pharmaceutical manufacturing, incentives for domestic API production, expansion of health insurance coverage, stronger drug regulatory enforcement, coordinated wholesale centres and structured medicine supply chains. He added that strengthening primary healthcare and preventive services remains the most sustainable pathway to building a resilient health system.
He noted that functional primary healthcare centres, rural service delivery, workforce retention, maternal and child health programmes and efficient vaccination logistics would reduce pressure on tertiary institutions and lower long-term healthcare costs.
“The foundation of a resilient health system is primary healthcare. Investment must prioritise functional primary healthcare centres, rural healthcare delivery, workforce retention strategies, maternal and child health, as well as vaccination logistics. If we strengthen primary care, we reduce tertiary overload and long-term costs,” he said.
Linking health directly to economic performance, Baale stated that a healthy population increases productivity, reduces absenteeism, lowers catastrophic household expenditure and enhances investor confidence. He argued that health spending should be viewed as human capital investment, an economic stabilisation policy and a poverty-reduction mechanism.
“The 4 per cent allocation reflects fiscal constraints, but it does not yet reflect strategic ambition. Nigeria must progressively increase health allocation over the next three to five years towards a higher threshold, while ensuring transparent tracking of expenditure, performance-based funding, strong procurement governance, public–private partnerships and outcome measurement. Increasing allocation without improving efficiency will not solve the problem. But maintaining low allocation while expecting global-standard outcomes is unrealistic,” he said.
As part of the way forward, the NAPharm helmsman recommended a phased roadmap to increase health spending as a percentage of the total budget; ring-fenced funding for pharmaceutical manufacturing and medicine security; a dedicated capital investment window for health infrastructure modernisation; stronger digital health integration for accountability; and incentives for diaspora medical professionals to return or collaborate remotely.
“₦2.48 trillion is significant in nominal terms, but 4 per cent of the national budget falls short of the scale of Nigeria’s health challenges and development aspirations. If Nigeria is serious about human capital development, healthcare must move from the margins of the budget to the centre of national strategy. A nation’s health determines its wealth,” he said.
Similarly, Dr Ojo described the allocation as one that calls for careful and dispassionate reflection, noting that sound budget evaluation should focus on proportion, priority and impact rather than absolute figures.
“Nigeria, with a population exceeding 200 million, faces a dual burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases, rising healthcare costs, persistent medical brain drain, fragile primary healthcare systems and growing dependence on imported pharmaceuticals. In this context, a 4 per cent allocation raises an important policy question: is health being treated as a strategic investment in national development or merely as a recurrent social obligation?” he asked.
He warned that persistent underfunding pushes households into catastrophic out-of-pocket expenditure, fuels preventable diseases, weakens workforce productivity, increases medical tourism and accelerates migration of skilled professionals. Conversely, adequate and strategically managed financing could strengthen preventive care, expand insurance coverage, stimulate local pharmaceutical manufacturing, create employment across the healthcare value chain and improve national preparedness.
Ojo stressed, however, that allocation size alone does not determine outcomes, identifying governance and utilisation as immediate challenges. He cited delayed budget releases, low capital implementation rates, procurement inefficiencies, fragmentation across agencies, weak monitoring systems and abandoned projects as factors that have historically diluted the impact of health spending.
“Allocation sets the ceiling of possibility; utilisation determines the reality of impact. Nigeria must improve both. However, improving utilisation is the fastest pathway to restoring public confidence while building a credible case for progressive increases in health-sector funding. The 2026 allocation should not end the conversation. It should begin a deliberate national dialogue on positioning health as a central pillar of economic growth, industrial development and human capital advancement,” he said.
Also commenting on the 2026 health budget, Pharm. Oyawole said the 4 per cent allocation falls short of what is required, given Nigeria’s population of over 200 million, high infant mortality rates, weak purchasing power and limited insurance coverage that leaves most citizens paying for healthcare out of pocket.
While acknowledging competing national priorities such as security and education, he maintained that the government must improve its commitment to health financing.
He noted that responsibility for health funding does not rest solely with the Federal Government, as health falls under the concurrent legislative list and therefore requires stronger commitment from states and local governments.
“States should commit between 10 and 15 per cent of their budgets to health, while local governments, which bear primary responsibility for primary healthcare services, should allocate between 20 and 25 per cent to the sector,” he said.
He stressed that budgeting alone is insufficient unless funds are released and utilised for their intended purposes, urging authorities at all levels to ensure that allocations translate into tangible services. He also called on health managers across primary, secondary and tertiary levels to maximise available resources so that measurable improvements can justify higher investments in subsequent years.
Oyawole added that health outcomes are closely linked to education, particularly in the training and retention of healthcare professionals.
