Chairman of Public Health Sustainable Advocacy Initiative, PHSAI, Barrister  Ayo Adebusoye has described the 2018 Lagos State health budget implementation as the worst in history. Adebusoye who made this known during a media workshop on “Budget Monitoring and Analysis” organised by the Nigerian Urban Reproductive Health Initiative, NURHI said that the 23 percent implementation amount to underperformance compared to what the state used to experience in the past. 

 

“When the Lagos State government passed the N1.046 trillion budget for 2018, and health got N92.676 billion representing 8.86 percent of the entire budget, people were excited even though it was not up to recommended accepted 15 percent. It is very unfortunate and unacceptable that out of this N92.676 billion, implementation is 23 percent which is about N21.315 billion.

 

Adebusoye who is also the Secretary General of the Nigeria Network of Non Governmental Organisations, said; “Breaking down the budget further, the state planned to spend about N40,000 on every Lagosian across board, with about N3,000 of this amount on health, on the long run what every Lagosian got for health was not up to N1,200. “If we are to put it in perspective, what this simply means is, assuming 100 people living with HIV are to be care for by the budget, but only 23 percent is attended to. What it means is that the remaining 77 percent can die or infect other people.” 

 

On his part, the State Team Leader for NURHI in Lagos, Dr Edun Omasanjuwa however urged the state government to always prioritise health budget implementation so as to give Lagosians access to better and quality “Majority of health activities cannot be seen like infrastructure such as road and water, but it is an investment that helps people to be healthy to carry out infrastructure project. “Healthy nation is wealthy nation. On this note we are calling for increase in health budget and implementation so as to guarantee access to quality healthcare services.