The Niger State government has continued to receive knocks for failing to maximise the opportunities presented by its yearly budget to improve the state’s dilapidated health care system, with renewed concerns that the sector will remain in its different levels of rot if urgent attention is not taken.
An analysis of the state’s budget for the Ministry of Health shows that, while personnel recorded an excellent performance, other critical parts of recorded a poor output.
Between 2017 and 2021, the Niger State Ministry of Health budgeted N10.49 billion for personnel costs which were approved. Within the period, the ministry spent N10.64 billion on personnel costs.
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This was more than the budgeted amount by N141.3 million. The state recorded a 101.35 percent performance on the personnel budget.
However, the same cannot be said for other headings on the budget. The health sector recorded poor performance on the other headings for the period.
Medical supplies, which were budgeted for N412.5 million from 2017 to 2021, only got N105.4 million, 25.6 percent of the budget.
N1.68 billion was budgeted for health equipment but got just N278 million, which is 16.5 percent.
The budget for health programs and health infrastructure were N10.13 billion and N23.23 billion, respectively. However, they got N1.27 billion and N2.89 billion, respectively.
This is a 12.5 percent performance for health equipment and a 12.4 percent for health infrastructure.
The Director Niger State Planning Commission, Hajiya Ashatu Sulieman, noted that the ministry’s poor performance on capital projects is because of their failure to apply for funds.
She said the Ministry of Health doesn’t apply for their funds on time and mostly waits until the end of the year. This makes it difficult as funds are tight towards the year-end.
‘Maybe it’s because they get funds from partners and feel they don’t need that from the government. But they fail to understand that funding for these projects is jointly done by the government and these partners’, she concluded.
The Director, Planning Research & Statistics, Niger State Ministry of Health, Pharm. Hamzat Yahaya observed that personnel costs could likely shoot over projected.
This is because some staff would get promoted within the period, with an increase in salaries and other benefits. The proposed budget didn’t capture these dynamics. This gives rise to the increase in personnel costs over budget.
However, Mathew Oladele of the Initiative for Social Development in Africa (ISDAF) pointed out that the Niger State Ministry of Health depends solely on partner funding.
He said that while it’s true that project funding is jointly by the state government and partners, the state depends on the partners for these projects.
The ISDAF Program Director noted that the state government would not execute any project which does not have external funding. Sighting an analysis from the Primary Health provides five distinct services – maternal child health, malaria, family planning, diarrhea, and ORS services.
He noted that if N150 million were released, ACBF would donate N60 million from Marrie Stoppe for family planning is N20 million, likewise, for other donors, you will notice only N5 million is from the government, which is a counterpart fund.
According to the Program Director, ‘the government does not put any money. If they do, it’s to make the budget robust, as they will not release it.’
This dependence on partner funds accounts for the low health budget performance in Niger State.