Bauchi Assembly promises 15% to health

Health Financing
Nigeria
2015
In this video, the Speaker expresses the determination of the State Assembly to ensure 15 per cent budgetary allocation to the health sector.

It is exciting to know that Bauchi State is showing the willingness to fulfil the promise to allocate 15 per cent of the state budget to the health sector.

We want Bauchi State to change and become one of the best places a woman would want to give birth in Nigeria.

This is because out of estimated 295,000 deliveries per year in Bauchi State, only 16.3 per cent were supervised by skilled birth attendants, and 83.1 per cent were home deliveries!

The 15 per cent allocation was a declaration made during the African leaders meeting in 2001, but with no deadline on when State governments should effect the declaration.

Jigawa State made the same statement, but until the statement is backed by law, it is a mere policy statement that can be declared null and void when a new administration comes in.

This is why the MamaYe advocacy team approached the Bauchi State government transition committee to pass the Free maternal and newborn health bill into law in order to secure the "free" in the Free maternal, newborn and child health medical services.

This must have informed and encouraged the decision of the Speaker, Alhaji Shehu Damina, and the State's assembly to declare their intention on fulfiling the 15 per cent budget allocation.

There's now a video showing the Speaker of the eighth Assembly of Bauchi State making the statement that under him, the 15 per cent allocation will materialise.

The MamaYe advocacy team in Bauchi will therefore continue to work with the State's government to ensure that the policy statement becomes a law, rather than another promise blown off by the wind of time, so that the following benefits may be enjoyed:

  • Timely release of health budget, based on evidence
  • Improved access to health facilities
  • Improved infrastructural facilities
  • Adequate skilled manpower
  • Adequate running cost of the State's cold store
  • Reduction in stockout of essential drugs and commodities
  • Adequate monitoring and supervision of utilisation of budget releases to the health sector

 

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