Co-chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Mr Bill Gates, has tasked the federal and state governments to prioritise funding the health sector to secure the future of Nigerians.
Gates said this in his presentation to the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting on Wednesday, presided over by Vice-President Kashim Shettima at the State House, Abuja.
He said President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope agenda, though ambitious, would need to deploy limited funds judiciously.
“Without health, there can be no opportunity. After all, priorities without funding are only words. And I know that right now, it’s impossible to give every priority the funding it needs.
That’s why it’s more important than ever to focus on the areas you know will make the greatest difference,” said Gates.
He explained that in two decades, the world had reduced the number of children who died before their fifth birthday by half as a result of investments in primary healthcare such as routine immunisation.
However, he said in Nigeria, 2.2 million children had never received a single vaccine.
Gates urged both the federal and state governments to put in more efforts to reverse the ratio.
He said President Tinubu’s administration had already taken a big step toward a stronger primary health system, by implementing an ambitious Sector-Wide Approach.
He said the reforms would ensure that every naira spent on healthcare was used wisely.
He said the reforms could only reach their full potential if states lived up to their obligations under Nigeria’s Health Sector Renewal Compact, and release their part of the funding.
Gates also called for investments in nutrition, which he said was the root cause of nearly half of all children’s deaths.
“When children are malnourished, they’re more vulnerable to deadly diseases. Even the children who survive malnutrition never escape it.
It stunts their brains and bodies in ways that can’t be reversed. And new data show that nearly one-third of Nigerian children suffer from stunting,” he explained.
However, he said there was reason to be optimistic as Nigeria had already mandated that staple ingredients like cooking oil and wheat flour were fortified with essential nutrients.
He added that researchers were working to fortify bouillon cubes, and that if scaled up, the bouillon cubes could save 11,000 lives and prevent over 16 million cases of anaemia each year.
He further said that even though companies were already mandated to fortify some staples, many were not fully complying.
He said all the solutions he proffered required investment in terms of time and money, and that no government could do this alone.
He added that partnership was important, and it was imperative for the private sector to support health and nutrition.
