The International Budget Partnership (IBP) in collaboration with Dataphyte has published a budget credibility report for the health sector in Niger State.
The report, which focuses on the budget performances and challenges in the state’s health sector, resulted from extensive research by the organisations.
The report noted a significant reduction in the budget deviation of its health budget, decreasing from 46% in 2017 to just 2% in 2019.
It also stated that in the same period, the highest underspending was 48% in 2018 and the least underspending of 2% in 2021. Non-release of approved funds and problems associated with government prioritisation of approved projects were highlighted as responsible for the shortfall in budgetary expenditures on health in the report.
A review of the report shows that while the government had a high budget performance in terms of personnel expenditure, it performed abysmally on health infrastructure, with an approved budget of N23.2 million and actual releases of N2.9 million, with an 88% negative deviation that amounts to N20.3 billion.
Health programs also suffered, with an approved budget of N10.1 billion and an actual release of N1.3 billion between 2017 and 2021.
In 2021, the government budgeted N3.1 million on health infrastructure but only spent N1.8 million, the highest amount between 2017 and 2021. In 2018, it budgeted N7.8 billion but only spent N400 million.
Of note are the findings of the state’s spending on medical supplies and equipment during the COVID-19 period between 2019 and 2020.
Zero naira was spent on medical supplies in 2020 and zero on medical equipment in the same period.
It was mentioned in the report that funds approved on paper were not released, “inhibiting budget implementation and the mobilisation of resources necessary for full implementation of health services.”. Bureaucratic hurdles were also identified as a reason for delays in the release of funds.
“Research findings show that the Niger State Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA) typically receives less than 13% of its allocated budget to implement five key programs. 2017, only 142 million naira out of the 1.1 billion naira budgeted for these programs was released, marking the highest amount released between 2017 and 2020, equivalent to 13% of the budget.” the report noted.
It was also stated that the situation persisted in 2018, with the agency receiving a mere 2% of its budget, as only 28 million naira of the 2 billion naira budgeted was released.”
Some issues with the prioritisation of spending noted include Political interference, late cash releases, and social and health problems.
Recommendations in the report include Improving financial forecasting and ensuring better alignment with approved budgets, transparency and participation in budget processes.
The report also clarified why MDAs’ memos are being disregarded, which leads to confusion and hindrance in the budget execution process.
It submitted that “the government must ensure transparency and adopt clear communication and feedback processes to inform MDAs of the reasons for rejecting requests for fund releases.”