ABUJA – Dr George Nwagwu, Coordinator, Public Private Partnership (PPP), Federal Ministry of Finance, said on Wednesday in Abuja that PPP was key to solving healthcare funding in the country.
Nwagwu said this while presenting a paper entitled “PPPs: A Credible Alternative Financing Mechanism for Nigeria’s Health Sector’’, at the ongoing PPP foundational training programme.
The programme was organised for senior officers in different sectors, ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), and state governments by the Nigeria Country Office of African Development Bank (AfDB).
Nwagwu said that governments’ budgetary provision for healthcare sector was below the 15 per cent of the total budget recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
He said Federal Government’s N262.78 billion appropriated for the sector in the 2014 budget represented 5.7 per cent of the budget and 6.7 per cent less than the 2013 allocation.
According to him, 77 per cent of total healthcare budget goes towards personnel emoluments, leaving only 23 per cent for capital projects.
Nwagwu, however, said that political will, proper risk management and strong public sector capacity enhancement remained the solution to healthcare infrastructure problem.
He said the few successful PPP projects in Nigeria involved sectors with independent technical and economic regulators such as telecommunications, power and aviation.
“Despite the fact that PPPs in the healthcare sector tends to throw up a number of issues demanding regulatory oversight during its operational phase, this institutional arrangement does not exist in health sector.
“The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) that is supposed to regulate PPPs is neither an economic non-technical regulator,” he said.
Nwagwu said that PPP could be regulated through a raft of policies that were backed with Federal Executive Council (FEC) approval and appointment of independent monitor.
He said that healthcare PPPs could present some significant challenges and risks that should be properly managed. (NAN)
