The WHO has revealed that Nigeria’s foreign health aids have reached N1.1 billion.
The World Health Organisation disclosed this in its 2021 report on global expenditure.
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The UN health agency also revealed four other countries that rely heavily on external support concerning health matters.
It claimed that half of Nigeria’s spending on immunization were funded by foreign donors.
According to its 2021 global expenditure on health since the past two decades, global spending on health had risen twice than normal.
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The report read:
“Global spending on health more than doubled in real terms over the past two decades, reaching $8.5trn in 2019 or 9.8 per cent of global GDP but it was unequally distributed with high-income countries accounting for approximately 80 per cent.
“Health spending in low-income countries was financed primarily by out-of-pocket spending. External aid rose considerably over the past two decades in countries that are highly dependent on external aids as the government’s share of spending on health for domestic public sources fell in line with increased aid.”
The statement further listed Nigeria among countries that rely heavily on external aid. The countries are:
- Nigeria.
- Ethiopia.
- The United Republic of Tanzania.
- Kenya.
- Mozambique.
Three of these countries are middle-income countries.
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The statement continued:
“Nigeria was the largest recipient, with health aid totalling $1.1bn, or 6.5% of global external health aid.
“Unsurprisingly, low-income countries relied more heavily on external aid to fund spending on immunisation.
“Lower-middle income countries varied widely on how immunisation was funded. Nigeria and India were outliers among countries with data: over half their spending on immunisation was funded by private sources.”
Source: PUNCH HealthWise